Corner Brook -
Thirty-four years later, Frances Drover still has a burning desire to help synchronized swimmers reach their true potential.
Drover started the Corner Brook Synchronized Swim Club back in 1975 when the late Ed Browne asked the St. John's native to run the synchronized club out of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College when the university opened that year. Drover had moved to the city with her family in 1974.
Synchronized swimming was a recreational pursuit of Drover as a young woman, and she had a background in music and dance. She felt it was only fitting at the time to take on the task of building the sport in Corner Brook.
While she has been occasionally lending a helping hand to local swimmers for the past 10 years when it came close to competitions, the amiable coach is back at the helm of the club once again because she can now make the commitment the athletes deserve. She had been approached to make a return earlier this year, but her late husband Dennis was sick at the time and she needed to be by his side. Mr. Drover died June 30, and it made her realize coaching is what she needed to be doing.
"Now I know I can devote the time that they need," Drover told The Western Star earlier this week. "It's my favourite sport. I have a great love for the sport.
"It's very creative and it's one of the most strenuous sports you can do. You have to have your musical ability, you have to have your flexibility and you have to have your endurance."
During her previous tenure as head coach, Drover had an uncanny ability to help her athletes reach the pinnacle of success at various levels of competition. She had swimmers compete on the national stage and suit up for Canada Games teams. And then there's the success of her dazzling duet of Krista Andrews and Kacey Callahan, who went to on to win no less than three Atlantic synchronized swim titles under her watchful eye.
She has fond memories of bringing Andrews and Callahan to competitions from coast to coast in Canada. And she hopes there will be more magical moments this time around.
"They were my babies; I took them when they were five years old and we worked and worked, and we went everywhere," she said.
With a solid core of some 10 competitive swimmers, Drover is eager to see the club get back to the point where athletes strut their stuff on the national level once again. One of the things that can help in this process is having a solid base of qualified coaches, according to Drover, and to help in this process the club is holding a training camp in the city and during that camp a Level I coaching clinic will be offered. She has visions of having her athletes whipped into shape for major events such as the 2010 Newfoundland and Labrador Winter Games and the 2011 Canada Winter Games, while building a strong base of entry level athletes for the coming decade.
"It's like every other sport ... you know you've got to have the coaching levels in order to get your athletes up the ladder a little bit," she said.
Andrews, meanwhile, will be one of the guest coaches for the training camp, which is slated for Aug. 10-14 at the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College pool. Andrews, who now lives in St. John's, will be joined by camp head coach Laura Pottle Cole of St. John's, who once was a fixture for Newfoundland and Labrador on the provincial and national scene.
"So it's sort of neat when you have people like that coming back, and figured we might be able to garner some interest with some new swimmers as well," she said.
With Drover back in the pool, the club fills the void left behind by the departure of Level 2 coach Kelly Murphy, who has taken a leave of absence, and Level 1 coach Lori Chaytor, who has decided to go back to school. Drover is up to the challenge.
"I like having my feet wet," she said with a chuckle.
For more information on the training camp contact Drover at 634-4716 or club president Denise MacDonald at 639-8158.
