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CLUB AWARDS

We have two awards that recognise the performance and contribution of club members over the year.

The June Liss Quarterly Coaches Award

This Award is a quarterly award and given out at the end of March, June, September and December every year.

The recipient of the Award is decided solely by the coaching team and is for recognition of the most improved swimmer over the quarter and has a great attitude.

The Award prize is a one month free membership to Aqua Jetty.

This Award is named after June Liss (remarried as June Hveissel). June was a long-time dedicated member of Rockingham Aussi Masters and then Rockingham Masters Swimming Club. During her time at the club she held the position of Secretary for 12 years until 2002, as well as being the inaugural coach, finishing an amazing 15 years of coaching in 2005.

To fill in spare time, June naturally continued to compete in the regular open-water events and took part in several Rottnest team swims. Despite being in her 80’s, she was still an active open water swimmer and was often seen with her husband Martin, enjoying a swim at Waikiki beach on summer mornings.

June passed away in June 2023 at the age of 84.

June Liss Quarterly Coaches Award Recipients
December 2021
Duy (Derek) Nguyen
March 2022
Miranda De Goede
June 2022
Neil Cameron
September 2022
Richard Gorzkos
December 2022
Rick Bunn
March 2023
Rick Bunn
June 2023
Victoria Wilson
September 2023
Shannon Dunbar
December 2023
PK Sullivan
March 2024
Simon Weston

The Harkup Annual Award

This Award is an annual award and will be given out in December of each year. It is presented as a trophy with the engravement of the recipient’s name and year of achievement.

It is a prestigious award with the recipient being decided between the coaches and the President. The recipient of this award must meet the following criteria:

  • someone who has promoted and shown the club values;
  • someone who has achieved their own personal goals through swimming and striving to achieve more;
  • someone who has never given up when things have become too hard; and
  • someone who has the appetite for fun, fitness and friends.

This Award is named after Derek Harkup, who was a stalwart and founding member of the Rockingham Masters Swimming Club (formally Rockingham Aussi Masters).

Derek was a quiet, reserved gentleman and was a very impressive swimmer despite age making him more and more frail. He would always compete in all the interclub challenges in all the events except breaststroke due to a troublesome knee, but butterfly was his favourite.

Derek held a few positions in the club including Club Captain and even after taking some steps back from the day to day running, the club was always very special to him.

Derek passed away in October 2019 at the age of 91

Harkup Annual Award Recipients
2021
Claire Holland
2022
Brian Leavy
2023
Nicola Awang

Debbie Hart

Coach Coordinator

Debbie’s background includes founder and owner of Debbie Hart’s Swimming School for 35 years teaching children from 3 years to competitive swimmers, representing Great Britain from 1975-1978 at County, National and International swimming events around the world, Silver medalist in 50m butterfly and Bronze medalist in 100m butterfly at FINA World Masters in Italy as well as a WA state record holder for 50m butterfly.

She has many sporting awards including ASA Swimming Coaches Award, RLSS Lifesaving Award, Aquafit Award and AUSTSWIM Teaching Swimming and Water Safety Qualifications.

As Coach Coordinator she is the first contact for the coaches and to assist and mentor them as well as guide and plan for the club to provide our members with a structure of training, fun, fitness for pool and open water swimming including competitions.

PK Sullivan

Program Leader

PK is just starting out on her coaching career and has completed the Masters Swimming Professional Development Course allowing her to become a Program Leader.

As a Program Leader PK is able to help guide you through the training session as set by one of the accredited coaches.

She is a newly qualified Teacher of Swimming and Water Safety and is currently undertaking a Cert 111 in Outdoor Leadership.

Besides being very passionate about nature, fitness and fun, PK teaches children to swim and loves helping people find the joy in being outdoors and staying active.

Coach Bridget

Bridget Young

Head Coach

Bridget has been coaching swimmers for many years from juniors through to adults. She has gained so much joy and achievement from swimming that she now enjoys passing her knowledge and experience gained over the years to helping other swimmers accomplish their dreams.

Bridget has achieved a lot during her swimming career including completing the English Channel crossing solo swim in 1985 as well as an additional three crossings in relay teams.

She has been inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, USA, competed in the 1991 World Championships in Perth achieving 11th place and travelled the world as a member of the Great Britain long distance swimming team which was ranked number one in the world at the time.  

She is still competing in outdoor and indoor events and for the last 4 years has come first in her age group in the Swimming WA OWS Series events.

Bridget’s Wikipedia Page