A golden generation of swimmers has come and gone from Hoppers Crossing Swimming Club.
Under coach Ken Warren, the club produced a number of regional, state and national representatives, but now stocks are starting to get a little thin.
“We have a pretty good history with national swimmers,” Warren told Star Weekly.
“But they’ve done their time and left the club and we’re now in a rebuild.”
The club, based at the new Aquapulse centre in Derrimut Road, needs a regeneration of its ranks.
Being shunted to the Werribee outdoor pool while Aquapulse was being built did not help, and the club has struggled to retain existing members or attract newcomers in recent years.
“We lost a lot of swimmers in that time,” Warren said.
Hoppers Crossing will hold a club information day from 10am on November 7.
It will be the most important out-of-pool event in years as the club tries to attract new swimmers. Star power will be used to drive the cause, with Australian swimming sensations Mack Horton and Monique Murphy on hand to share their knowledge and experience.
Horton won gold in the 4 x 200m freestyle team and silver in the 1500m freestyle at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
Murphy is a multi-class paralympic swimmer who competed at the IPC World Championships.
Both have totally different tales to tell about how they got to the top of their chosen sport.
The crux of the presentation will undoubtedly revolve around the hard work and sacrifices they made to get to the top.
“We’re asking these swimmers to explain how much they have put into swimming to get to where they are,” Warren said.
“They have totally different backgrounds but it’s all about finding out about how they got there.”
The information day is open to anyone with an interest in joining the club.
