Metro East is a voluntary swimming association that enables swimming clubs in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne to compete at a district level. Before the founding of this Association in 1958, Clubs in this area travelled to Melbourne and Brunswick for competition.
A Piece of History..
In December 1958 an inaugural meeting with representatives of Belgrave, Lilydale, Dandenong, Seville and Ringwood together with Mr. L Phillips and Mr. B Carter from the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association was held in the home of Mr. S McArthur and the DANDENONG RANGES DISTRICT SWIMMING ASSOCIATION (DRDSA) was formed.
In January 1959, Mr. W Whelan and Mr Predl were elected President and Secretary respectively.
At the first Annual General Meeting, in May 1959, Mr. Whelan and Mr. Predl retired. Mr. S McArthur and Mrs. P McArthur were elected President and Secretary respectively.
The first District Championship Carnival was held at Lilydale on 13th February 1960, with all Clubs competing. It was at the first District Championship Carnival that a silver trophy was donated to the District by a friend of the Belgrave Club. This trophy is known as the "Friendship Trophy", and is presented each year to the winner of the Women's Open Freestyle Relay. Sometime later the Association purchased a second trophy which is presented to the winner of the Men's Open Freestyle Relay. |
Stop Press 24/08/2008 The 2008 Metro East Inter Club series concluded on 22nd August. Well done to all those swimmers who participated. Many thanks to the Clubs, parents and Metro East officials who helped with the running of this competition over the five Friday nights. Results for both aggregate and relays have now been posted on the results page.
17/06/2008
Another successful trip over the weekend by the District Team to the Ginninderra Swimming Club meet in Canberra with swimmers achieving 209 PB’s out of 277 swims, one swimmer a meet record and many medals won.
See Reports below from Anne, Dean, Damien and Lauren. |
Clubs have come and gone over the years. 1961 saw Seville go out of existance, 1962 witnessed Nunawading and Wedge join the Association and compete in the Championships. Croydon entered in 1964, Boronia in 1965 and Maroondah in 1966. 1967 saw Dandenong and Wedge transferred to District No. 6 by the VASA and 1970 saw the introduction of Monbulk.
Active affiliated Clubs within the District 2005 are :- Ashburton, Boronia, Croydon, Healesville, Kew, Lilydale, MLC Aquatic, Monbulk, Nunawading, PLC, Ranges, Ringwood, and Surrey Park.
In 2003 a new logo "Metro East" was created for the DANDENONG RANGES DISTRICT SWIMMING ASSOCIATION. The logo depicts the Hills of the nearby Dandenong Ranges and at the same time the movement of water.
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METRO EAST TRIP TO CANBERRA 2008
TEAM MANAGER’S REPORT
Anne Bustard
The Metro East District trip once again journeyed up the highway to Canberra to compete in the Ginninderra Short Course Carnival held at the AIS this year on the weekend of 14/15th June. A team of 33 very excited swimmers departed from Ringwood pool on Thusday 12th June at 8am.
The clubs represented included Ringwood, Lilydale, Monbulk , Boronia, MLC, Healesville, and Nunawading. Most of the swimmers knew someone on the trip but there were a couple who came not knowing anyone, by the time we stopped for morning tea at Yea they were all chatting and had made friends easily. This continued on for the the whole weekend, the group just gelled together fantastically.
Our first day was spent at the AIS starting with a 90min training session followed by a tour of the AIS then a wonderful lunch in the dining room. After we had all eaten very well we were off to hear all about Sport Recovery and Sport Psychology . These sessions proved invaluable to the swimmers who all participated by asking many questions. Before the day was finished the swimmers all took part in some active play of soccer and touch rugby. It was great to see them all having a go at something quite different to swimming. We finally arrived back at our accommodation at 6:30pm, dinner was at 7:00pm and most went off to bed quite exhausted at 9:45pm.
The next 2 days were spent doing what they do best - that is, swimming and perform they did… Out of 277 events they achieved 209 PB’s and most swimmers came home with a medal or 2.
Our final night was a night to have fun, this was done in a truly competitive way at the local Ten Pin Bowling alley. Well done to Marcus Bordignon for his outstanding result!!!!
We all boarded our bus at 8:am Monday 16th June for the return trip back down the highway home, arriving back to Ringwood Pool at 5:00pm.
Every swimmer is to be commended on his/her encouraging behaviour to everyone on the team, also their overall behaviour was something to be proud of.
It was a pleasure to be part of the team as a Team Manager again this year, there are many memories,I, along with the swimmers will keep for many years to come.
Dean Bryant
Well the Metro District Trip is over but the memories will most definitely live on in those involved. From a coach perspective, it was one of the most enjoyable swimming trips I have ever been on with an enthusiastic group of young athletes, positive and encouraging coaching and team management staff and great comp/venue making the weekend. My congratulations go to Kasey Stephenson and Nicholas Lindsey who won the female and male swimmer of the meet award as voted by all athletes on the trip – this award is selected based on swimming performance, leadership, participation in team activities and support for fellow athletes.
My congratulations also to those swimmers from all clubs who achieved swags of PB’s (including a number of 100% efforts) and won medals – with a particular mention to Nerice Smith who broke the meet record for the 50m Breaststroke in a time of 36.18 seconds. I am also particularly proud of all athletes in “Team C” for the supportive and encouraging behavior they displayed towards each other and for the enthusiastic nature that race feedback was taken.
I would also like to thank the team captains from each group who took a positive approach to their role and who showed excellent leadership for the duration of the meet. Thanks also to Joff for his hard work in making this trip a huge success – the district is certainly lucky to have somebody as dedicated to the development of district athletes as Joff & the Committee is. Thanks also to the coaches Damien, Lauren and Team Manager Ann for their light-hearted good humor and commitment to the athletes.
See you next year.
: From the Coaches Eyes.
Damien Gogoll
Swimmers were divided into 3 groups with a coach assigned to each. This provided swimmers with consistent feedback and ideas on their races from the one person and made the coaches’ job much easier.
The 2008 District trip to Canberra was a great success. The results speak for themselves. 209 PB’s out of 277 swims, one Meet Record and many medals won. If you consider the performances in the pool, it was a success, but why do we have this trip? The trip is aimed at those swimmers who are just outside of national times, as a chance for them to use this trip as a stepping stone to reach the national times. From a coaches perspective, this trip is a chance for swimmers to travel as a team, compete inter-state, have fun and most of all swim well. On reflection this was achieved. The swimmers were a team. Every swimmer supported the other swimmers, cared about how they swam and worked together. They were not a group of individuals. From our eyes they did have fun. Going away with a group of swimmers who don’t all know each other can be daunting, but all swimmers were happy to socialize with each other and new friendships were created.
I would like to thank all swimmers for being such a great team to work with. They made the coach’s job extremely easy. Secondly I would like to thank the two other coaches, Dean Bryan & Lauren McLaverty, they were only too happy to help out where ever needed. And finally to the team managers, Joffre Charles and Anne Bustard – with out them this trip would not have been such a success.
Lauren McLaverty
33 selected swimmers from a variety of Eastern district clubs gathered on a cold Thursday morning in June at the Ringwood pool ready for the bus trip to Canberra. After a quick farewell to parents the bus, again driven by Rob was on its way. The trip ran smoothly with a couple of movies and a stop off for lunch at Subway in Albury.
Everyone settled into their rooms at the Canberra City YHA and after a brief meeting headed off to dinner about 7pm. Phones were confiscated and lights out by 10pm.
It was a sleep-in in terms of a swimmers life with wake up at 6.30am by a knock on the door and lights turned on by Joff. Friday and we were off to the Australian Institute of Sport and it was also the beginning of the peg game. The day started with a 1½ hr training session at the AIS pool finishing with a relay. Damien’s group were clear winners but were disqualified by Joff for a break, making Lauren’s team number one. It was a fantastic experience with the day consisting of a tour around the AIS lead by a very tall volleyball player, lunch with the athletes and a talk by a young soccer player on the journey of his life so far. The peg was still making its way around the team. We also had two very informative talks on recovery and phycology in sport and finished off the day with a game football and soccer. During the day the swimmers had a chance to buy souvenirs at the shop going home with bags, towels, socks and drink bottles. The peg finished with Jack Currie and he sang us the Australian Anthem after a failed attempt at Waltzing Matilda.
Saturday and Sunday were competition days- the reason we were there!
WOW what can I say! 277 events were swum over the two days and 209 PB’s were made. Congratulations to Nerice Smith on breaking the 12 years 50m breaststroke. All the swimmers were very supportive of each other and their achievements. Hopefully many of these swimmers will go on to make Nationals.
Sunday night was bowling night. There were many different styles of bowling some more effective than others. It was also the night where the trophies for the best male and female swimmers of the meet are presented. All swimmers vote for these awards for the person who not only achieves in the pool but also shows good sportsmanship to all. Congratulations to Kasey Stephenson and Nicholas Lindsay.
There were some tired worn out bodies on the bus on the way home. This didn’t stop the chatter. There were many friendships made on this trip. It’s great to go to Interclub on Friday night and watch the interaction between swimmers from the different clubs that had been on this trip. The laughs, friendships and memories all rehashed. As a coach I feel privileged to have been a part of this team. Thank-you to Joff, Anne, Damien and Dean and all the swimmers.
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