Club Focus: Sutherland Sandbern Masters Swimming Club.
To find out about the origins of this great little success story, we had to take a long look back to 1993 when the club first began to form. How did they get their name ‘Sandbern?’ Well, that’s a great story on it’s own.
Sandbern SLC Aquadot Swim Team evolved from a group who swam together in squad sessions at Sutherland Leisure Centre from 1993. The coaches of the time, Sandra Romanis and Bernie McLennan, saw potential in the group and encouraged them to participate in the Australian Masters Games to be held in Melbourne in October 1995.
The appreciation and respect the team felt for their coaches, was obvious when they combined the names Sandra and Bernie to form the name of this new team, “Sandbern”. The full name included reference to SLC (Sutherland Leisure Centre) and Aquadot Swim Club.
Sandbern decided to affiliate with AUSSI Masters after that first carnival in 1995.The word ‘AUSSI’ has since been dropped and the governing body is now simply known as Masters Swimming Australia.
In November 2012 our name changed to Sutherland Sandbern Masters Swim Club. The official club code is NSA.
The club has grown and flourished in the years since that first carnival in 1995. They haven’t looked back since, recently swimming themselves into the top ten overall clubs at the 2019 National Swimming Championships in Adelaide. They are currently the highest ranked NSW team.
There a bit of a pattern here for NSA at recent Nationals. In the last six years NSA has been the top scoring NSW team twice (2019 & 2014). They have also been in the top 3 scoring NSW teams four times (2019, 2018, 2015 & 2014) AND in the overall top 10 teams three times (2019, 2015 & 2014).
Through all the years, outside of all of their competition success, their main purpose has remained constant – to swim regularly, enjoy good friendships and have fun. That’s what the care about the most.
As a club, they do compete regularly throughout the year. This is a lot of fun and sometimes includes travelling interstate and even overseas to the bigger carnivals. Masters swimming is very welcoming to swimmers of all abilities. SSMSC members range from the very strong to the not so fast. It doesn’t matter… they all have a lot of fun, regardless.
Club members regularly enjoy a coffee and good company after training sessions at the Sutherland Leisure Centre. We also have various social functions throughout the year.
So, if you think that swimming regularly and having fun could be for you, please get in contact and we’ll be very happy to welcome you to the Sandbern family.
Check out a few fun photos and stories on their official club Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/SutherlandSandbernMastersSwimClub
See you in the water!