The previous Swimwatch post mentioned several worrying aspects of the most recent email from Gary Francis. I think it is important to spend some additional time discussing his plans; especially one specific feature that Francis thinks is important. Here is what his email says.

Be extremely cautious of the motives behind the Francis’ plan. In my opinion Francis should not be trusted. Behind his smooth and somewhat creepy words there is a devious purpose. In my view his goal is to see club teams reduced in importance. Regionalism is an effort to bring back centralisation by another name.

Let me explain the history that leads me to that opinion. Until the early 1990s teams attending the National Championships were selected and represented their home region. There were no club teams. Things were what Francis wants us to go back to. Clubs put their qualified swimmers forward to Regional selectors. The Regional teams were then announced. A Regional Manager and Head Coach were appointed. Regional uniforms were distributed and group travel was arranged. Gary Francis would love it. It was exactly what he wants us to do today.

Swimmer’s personal coaches could travel separately to the Championships but for the duration of the meet they were forbidden from having contact with their swimmers. Any communication had to be processed through the Region’s Team Manager or Head Coach. As I say it was/is a Gary Francis dream.

In 1991 I was fed up with this nonsense. Our club had a very good Head Coach, Gary Hurring, and was investing many thousands of dollars in building a strong and successful swim team. It was beyond reason that at the most important domestic meet of the year our club’s swimmers were being kidnapped to be coached and managed by someone else. The swimmers didn’t want it. The swimmer’s parents didn’t want it. Our club coach, manager and committee didn’t want it. No one wanted it except the 1990’s Gary Francis clones in SNZ and in the Regions. For them it was all about power.

I decided something needed to be done. I met a well-known Wellington law firm and explained the problem. They thought we had a case and wrote a brief to be presented to Swimming New Zealand (SNZ). The brief included an opinion that argued that the actions of SNZ were forcing our club to breach its contract with the swimmers and/or their parents. Swimmers were paying the club to be coached by Gary Hurring. That was their contract with the club. By forcing the swimmers to be coached by someone else during the National Championships SNZ was forcing a breach of contract.

SNZ rejected our approach. I remember the Francis clone saying how dare we hit him with a legal demand like that. Who did we think we were?

We asked SNZ to reconsider. That also failed. Their reply included a demand that we not bother them again. Teams had always travelled as Regional teams. That’s the way it was going to stay. By this time the National Championships were only one or two weeks away. Something needed to be done quickly. Our lawyer suggested we apply for an emergency interim injunction requiring the National Championships to be cancelled until a court could decide on the merits of our case.

We got a Court date which, if I remember correctly, was on a Friday afternoon before the Championships were due to begin the following Tuesday. The Friday arrived and I went with the lawyers to have lunch in Wellington’s El Casino restaurant before going to the Court. Spirits were high. The lawyers were confident that the injunction would be granted. Midway through the main course I got a phone call. It was the SNZ Francis clone; an extremely grumpy clone. He said SNZ had met with its lawyers during the morning and had decided we could travel as a club to the Nationals. We had won. SNZ did not however want to pay our costs. I agreed we would all pay our own costs. That is a decision I have regretted ever since.

That weekend our club travelled to the Championships alone, dressed in our club gear, coached by our club coach, staying in our club accommodation, independent and free. In twelve months pretty well every club in the country was doing the same thing. A few Regions like HBPB held on to the regional thing for a bit longer but eventually the appeal of freedom had its way. Few of us realised how bad things had been until we experienced the freedom to do our own thing, in our own way.

That is how independent club attendance at the National Championships began. It has always been light years ahead of the fake regional idea. Teams that train together should stay together. Independent club teams promote the life blood of the sport – competition. I have no idea why Francis wants to promote bogus Regional teams. The USA is the world’s most successful swimming nation. Their swimming is based on a club structure. Does anyone think the USA would persist with a club structure if there was a chance that Regional teams would produce a better result? The Americans would change in a heartbeat. But they don’t. They stay with clubs because clubs better provide the diversity and competition necessary for a strong sport. But Francis, a New Zealand club age-group club coach, thinks he knows better than the Americans. Beware he is leading us into a very dark place.

I don’t think there is a coach anywhere who wants to hand over their best swimmers to a Regional coach for the National Championships. I cannot imagine Gary Hollywood being impressed with the idea of the Masterton Coach taking over the preparation of Lewis Clareburt or William Benson handing over Emma Godwin to the Waipukurau Coach. But that’s the way it used to be and where Francis regionalism will lead us today.

The problem with freedom is you often don’t know what you have until you lose it. Do not be suckered into another Francis con. Value your independence. It was hard won. If you hand your freedom to do your own thing over to Gary Francis it will be a huge job to win it back.