Meet the Solihull Swimming & Water Polo Coaching Team
Dave Turpin
Coach - Water Polo
More about Dave coming soon!
Chris Thorley
Coach - Water Polo
Chris is a long-time member of Solihull Swimming Club, having swam with the club from childhood, then as a co-swimmer for City of Birmingham and Warwickshire, then with Birmingham Masters well into his 30s. Chris dominated SSC Club champs across all strokes for multiple consecutive years - look for his name on your trophies!
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Chris started water polo at age 17, playing for both Solihull and Warwickshire. He was in the National League team until 2014.
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Chris now has two sons playing water polo with Solihull and he coaches across the water polo squads and Senior Club swimming. He enjoys giving back to the club in his new coaching role. He's foregone his own swimming for running, including ultra-marathons!
Beth Goucher
Head of Teaching - Swimming
Beth is a Level 2 qualified swimming teacher, Head of Teaching on Sunday nights at Tudor Grange and Lead Coach for our Development Squad.
Beth has been a member of Solihull Swimming Club since 1988 when she joined the club as a junior swimmer. She went on to swim for both Solihull and City of Birmingham and competed in water polo for Solihull and the West Midlands. She now has 3 children swimming and playing water polo with Solihull and is a familiar face of the club.
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Beth started teaching at 15 years old and now leads our teaching provision on Sunday nights where she is responsible for our entry trials. As well as her teaching qualifications, she is a Level 2 Triathlon Coach making her very popular with our senior swimming squads!
Geoff Hinton
Coach - Swimming
Geoff is a firm favourite across all our squads, with swimmers and parents alike, having been associated with the club for over 30 years, since his daughter (our Head Water Polo Coach Hannah!) joined us at age 12. Geoff had been a teacher at Orion and coach with Halesowen and City of Birmingham before he joined our coaching team.
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Geoff has tried to retire but returned to our team in March 2024 to support technical development in our Competitive and Competitive Development Squads, and he's delighted with the progress he's seen since then. Geoff will continue to drive improvements in stroke work year on year with a goal to get our swimmers to National Level via progressing through our squads.
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Getting a Geoff handshake is like an Olympic Medal for our younger swimmers, and they work hard for it!
Georgia Patterson
Coach - Water Polo
Georgia is arguably our most high-energy water polo coach, fuelled with flapjack!
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Georgia swam with Solihull until aged 12. She started playing water polo at the University of Chester where she re-invigorated the university water polo team. After university she joined Solihull as a water polo player. She started helping with the junior squads and gained her coaching qualifications with the club. She now supports coaching across all squads and still plays with our women's team.
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Georgia loves the competitive nature of water polo and the ability to stay fit and healthy through regular training. Her proudest moment was competing in the National Water Polo League and her ambition is to increase the number of young girls and women playing water polo. She would love to see players from more diverse communities participate and enjoy the spot.
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Georgia is also our club Communications Secretary.
Ethan Devoy
Coach - Swimming
Ethan is a familiar face for our swimmers having 'grown up' with Solihull Swimming Club - joining at 8 years old and progressing through our squads to ultimately compete in the Nationals for the West Midlands.
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Ethan is now moving into teaching and coaching - he teaches full time, is a qualified L2 teacher and L1 coach, training for his L2. Ethan is currently supporting development across all of our squads.
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Ethan's favourite stroke is front crawl, and is happiest on poolside with a banana and a chewy flapjack!
Hannah Hinton
Head Coach - Water Polo
Hannah is the Head Coach of our Water Polo section.
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Hannah has been a member of the club since she was very young, first swimming and then transferring to water polo. She has a wealth of experience as a player and a coach.
Ian Boardley
Coach - Swimming
Ian is a Professor of Sports Psychology at University of Birmingham and is our Lead Coach for our Racing Squad.
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Ian has been with the club for approximately 4 years, with two children currently swimming in our squads. He is an SSC Official, Team Manager and L1 Coach, currently training for his L2.
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Ian is no stranger to sports - he's a triathlete, has previously coached athletics, played hockey for English Universities, has completed an ultra-marathon and over 50 marathons! He's our endurance king!
Ian Jolly
Coach - Water Polo
More about Ian coming soon!
Matt Hunt
Coach - Swimming
Matt is one of the latest additions to our swimming coaching team, training towards his Level 2 and Lead Coach for our Competitive Squad. Matt is a primary school teacher and has previously taught swimming. As a youth he swam for Bromsgrove and continued swimming for his university. His favourite stroke is fly and his longest open water swim was Lake Windermere at 10.5 miles!
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Matt now has 3 children swimming with SSC.
Niamh Barguss
Head of Teaching - Swimming
Niamh is a Level 2 qualified swimming teacher and Head of Teaching on Friday nights at Tudor Grange. She also helps with coaching for some of our junior swimming and water polo squads.
Niamh has been a member of SSC since she was 4 years old, joining our teaching lessons and remaining a competitive swimmer in our Racing squad till she was 13 years old. She swam on our Junior and Mercian League teams during her time swimming. At 12 Niamh started to play water polo at Solihull. As a junior she represented West Midlands and still trains 4 times a week with Solihull and is part of our ladies' team, competing on their National League and Midlands League Teams.
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Niamh started volunteering in the teaching classes when she was 12 and started working as an assistant swim teacher at 14. When she was 16 she took her Level 1 and 2 Teaching exams and continues to work for two swim schools as a qualified teacher. Niamh supports the assessments of swimmers, the structure of the lessons, movements between stages and the support of our young teachers.
Matt Kelly
Assistant Head Coach - Swimming
Matt has been a coach at Solihull for a number of years and is a qualified Level 2 coach.
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Both of Matt's sons trained with Solihull and went on to train with City of Birmingham swimming club. He became involved whilst his sons swam with us and has continued to coach even though his sons have now have finished their swimming careers.
Matt particularly enjoys bringing on our young swimmers in the development squads, ready to compete in their first meets. He regularly attends as Coach at the Junior League and open meets where he supports our junior swimmers competing for the first time, taking the skills he has taught them in training into a racing environment.
Phil Powell
Men's Head Coach - Water Polo
Phil Powell is a nationally renowned Water polo coach having been awarded British Water Polo Coach of the Year in 2019 and previously West Midlands Water Polo Coach of the Year twice! He has been a member of Solihull SC for 32 years having joined at the age of 4 and was a prior SSC Club Captain. He started playing water polo at age 12, progressing to play for his region as a junior player in the national squad.
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Phil had an early start to coaching with the SSC Dive Award, SSC junior swimming squads and then SSC water polo. By the age of 22 he was already coaching the GB u17 Men's team. Over the past 10 years he has been consistently coaching national teams, with roles including Welsh Men's Coach and GB u19 Men's Coach.
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Phil's proudest achievement is coaching Solihull men to win the British Water Polo League and British Championships in 2018 - one of only 2 teams that have achieved both titles in the same year!
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Phil loves the team aspect of the sport, encouraging skills in leadership, teamwork and communication. Just don't get between him and one of Niamh's bakes - a cruel punishment awaits!​​
Rory Bayliss
Coach - Swimming
Rory joined Solihull Swimming Club in 2022 when his son started swimming with us. He quickly volunteered to support poolside with registers and is always the first to learn the names of all the new swimmers! Rory is an SSC Team Manager and is now working towards his L1 coaching qualification.
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Rory has a background in sport, having been a keen swimmer as a child and then played rugby to a highlight of participating in U19's for Greater Birmingham. He is a dedicated rugby coach and brings that encouragement and enthusiasm for sport to our club.
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Share your Tangfastics with him on poolside to keep a smile on his face!
Martin Hitchman
(Retired!) Coach - Swimming
Martin became involved with the club as an official and is a qualified Level 2 Judge, helping at many open meets including our club championships.
Martin has coached a wide range of swimmers across various squads, from our performance squads to Junior and Senior Club. He makes sure his sessions push all the members so they can achieve their personal goals. This is always done with a smile on his face making him a popular coach and his sessions are always busy.
Martin has two Children that still competed with us and he also trained with our masters squad.
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Martin retired from coaching in July 2024 to focus on his golf swing, but we hope to see him poolside occasionally to support us with our home meets.
