West Midland Swimming is pleased to announce the appointment of a further two Partnership Swimming Coaches in the Region.

Mick Hepwood and Nathan Hilton will start work in September 2008 in the Black Country and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership areas respectively.

Mick is no stranger to the Black Country having been born and brought up in the area. He also spent many years coaching at various clubs in the area – Stourbridge, Dudley Metro, Walsall and City of Birmingham.

As an experienced and successful coach, Mick began working for British Swimming in 2001 working alongside Bill Sweetenham, John Atkinson and Tim Jones. He was responsible for the Start Programme for the South of England which involved working with lottery funded swimmers and mentoring coaches. More recently, he has been employed as an English Programme Regional Coach in London and East Regions

Mick has coached swimmers at all levels from National age group and youth champions to international and Olympic swimmers. He has managed and coached many GB national teams and was Head Coach for the Barbados National Team at the World Short Course Championships.

Mick’s knowledge of the local area and vast experience in swimming coaching is an exciting opportunity for the Black Country and is looking forward to the challenge of raising the profile of swimming in the area and working with the club coaches to help their swimmers maximise their full potential.

Nathan, who originally came from Lincoln, has been married for 2 years. He is a Level 4 coach and has been involved in competitive swimming for the past 20 years. He spent 10 years as a competitor under the guidance of former GB Head Coach Ian Turner at City of Lincoln Pentaqua, reaching finals and winning medals at county, district and national level. For the past 10 years Nathan has worked as a Coach – he was Assistant Chief Coach at Lincoln Vulcans SC before spending the last five and a half years as Chief Coach at Cleethorpes and District Swimming Club.

Nathan has consistently produced national level swimmers at Age Group and Youth level and his swimmers have made numerous finals and won medals at National championships every year since 2000. This continued success has led to him being invited to coach on the regional level 1 and level 2 talent development camps in the North East Region.

Nathan has extensive experience in the formation of swim squads, having been instrumental in the success of CASA (Cleethorpes and Scunthorpe Aquatics), which over the past 2 years has allowed many swimmers to achieve success in the pool.

This is an exciting opportunity for the clubs in the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership and Nathan’s extensive development and performance background will be a great asset for the clubs, coaches and swimmers alike.