Gary Hurring will hate this post. He is quiet, unassuming and modest. The last thing in the world he needs or would want is anyone writing about him on the internet. The fact that it’s David Wright doing the writing won’t help. I imagine that the prospect of support for Gary around the Swimming New Zealand Board table will not be helped by my backing.

However Gary came to mind yesterday when I was talking to ex-national representative, Michelle Burke. Gary was her coach. For the life of me I cannot understand why Swimming New Zealand has not made more use of Gary Hurring. One of the key attributes of successful management is the ability to bring into the organization the very best people. Swimming New Zealand has failed that test. I think that Cotterill and Johns are scared of people like Gary Hurring. The gulf between their product knowledge and someone like Gary is embarrassingly huge, and they know it. But instead of welcoming the contribution of those who know more, Cotterill and Johns surround themselves with employees that make them look good and feel comfortable. Why else would a coaching intern be left in charge of a swimmer like Bradlee Ashby?

It is ironic that the last time I spoke to Gary was about a month ago. The call was put through to his phone in Hawaii. He had been employed to take a training camp for senior swimmers. Absolutely brilliant, I thought. He gets employed by the best swimming nation in the world. But in New Zealand the Federation sacked him. Pretty much says it all really.

Gary’s resume explains why he is valued by the Americans. Here is how Wikipedia describes his swimming career.

Wikipedia doesn’t mention that Gary also won the 1978 New Zealand Sportsman of the Year Halberg Award or that he has been equally successful as a coach. His list of New Zealand champions and representatives is incredible. Here are the ones I can remember – Toni Jeffs, Michelle Burke, Mark Haumona, Jon Winter, Gareth Keane, Tash Hind, Samantha Lee, Samantha Lucie-Smith, Clair Benson and Emma Robinson.

But instead of using Gary, what have Swimming New Zealand done in recent years? Well when Mark Regan was forced out of the Head Coach’s job SNZ brought in Bill Sweetenham as coaching cover. Only SNZ knows the cost of that exercise – but it would have been huge. I hate to think what Sweetenham’s fee, his travel and accommodation in a good Auckland hotel cost. Gary could have done a better job at a fraction of the cost.

Then Lyles, an English foreigner from China, was employed. That didn’t work out. SNZ argued before the Employment Authority that the Head Coach’s job was going to change and Lyles didn’t have the skills needed for the new position. The Employment Authority agreed. I think the whole thing was a SNZ ploy to get rid of David Lyles. For a year after Lyles had gone Clive Power did what looked like the same job, but did it, in my view, better. Instead of going overseas to find another foreigner, if SNZ had employed someone like Gary, supported on the SNZ Board by Clive Power, all the heart ache would have been avoided – and New Zealand’s best swimmers would have had a better coach. But of even greater importance, swimmers like Boyle and Stanley could have stayed in New Zealand.

But Swimming New Zealand is a very slow learner. When Clive Power called it a day after the Rio Olympic Games SNZ went off around the world looking for another foreigner and, this time identified an American age group coach as just the person needed to lead swimming to international fame. Only SNZ could reach the conclusion that the American had a superior resume to Gary. The American only survived a year and was gone. In that time he made two decisions that, in my opinion, highlighted his shortcomings. He programed a high altitude camp in his home state of Arizona three months before the World Championships. Every international coach knows that timing a high altitude camp three months before a major competition will only cause harm. And the American changed the 2018 Open Championships to three months after the Commonwealth Games, in the middle of the New Zealand winter. The whole saga would be funny if it wasn’t so serious and expensive.

And, after the American disappeared back to Arizona to coach another club side, SNZ decided it didn’t need to scour the world for a foreign coach any longer and left the national training squad, including Bradlee Ashby, in the hands of the squad’s coaching intern. The incompetence of these events, right from the time Regan left, is stunning. The only decision that made sense was to bring Clive Power in for the year prior to the Rio Olympic Games.

But why on earth, instead of Lyles or Power or the American or the intern, SNZ didn’t do the obvious and appoint Gary when Regan left I will never understand. It has to be either because they were scared of his superior knowledge or so obsessed by anything foreign they were unable to see the obvious. In the meantime a hugely important New Zealand coaching resource is being wasted. Sadly instead of being used in New Zealand Gary is off helping the Americans leave us even further behind. You have to give it to the Americans – they know about swimming. That’s why they call on Gary Hurring and we don’t.