MEET THE COACHES
Head Coach
Wayne de Lacy, an Advanced (Silver Licensed) Coach, has been coaching for over 30 years. Wayne is nearing completion on his Performance (Gold License) coaching accreditation. Training under and taking over the coaching business from his father, the very decorated Fred de Lacy, Wayne has inherited his father’s gift of getting the very best out of his swimmers. Continuing on in Fred’s unorthodox coaching format, Wayne is focussed on good technique and CAQ’s squad swimmers suffer almost zero training related injuries. Wayne’s credentials include coaching stints in both the WAIS high performance centre and at the AIS under Leigh Nugent, and he has sat on the SWA board for 8 years. He coached his niece Sally Hunter until she joined the AIS, and he is continually producing State and National level swimmers. Quietly ambitious, Wayne has utmost belief in his swimmers and trains them to be responsible for their success in the water. A strong advocate of open water swimming and the lifesaving delivered by the club, Wayne oversees a well-rounded swimming programme that caters for everyone.
JUNIOR SQUAD Coach
Debra Foster (nee de Lacy), an Advanced (Silver Licensed) Coach, is responsible for nurturing our younger swimmers. Deb has 30 years coaching experience and is arguably one of WA’s best technique coaches. A swimming superstar herself, Deb was the first West Australian to beat the minute clock in the women’s 100m freestyle (she just happened to pass on her swimming talents to her daughter, Olympian Sally Hunter, and son Tom Foster). Her racing experience puts her in good stead as she guides our swimmers through their competitive swimming journey and her advice sees our swimmers grow in confidence and ability time and time again. A diminutive, yet no nonsense coach, poolside she is often seen barefoot, jeans rolled up, coaching alongside Lane 1 in the outdoor Baysie Pool.
Coach & MENTOR
Sally Hunter (nee Foster) began her swimming journey at Central Aquatic. One which took her from humble beginnings, to the AIS and the international stage, where she represented Australia at the World Championships and both the Commonwealth and Olympic Games – earning herself quite a medal haul. After retiring from competitive swimming, Sally took a post at South Australian super-club Marion (think Kyle Chalmers) looking after the up-and-coming National swimmers, with great success. Family ties brought her full circle, home to WA and back to the club where it all began. Sally is in the process of completing her Advanced (Silver License) coaching accreditation and we couldn’t be happier having Sal on pool deck coaching our juniors and mentoring our age and open state and national qualifiers.