Today we're diving into - Cobar SC
This week we’re diving into a club that registered over 100% of their past season’s membership total within a month of our 2021-2022 season opening, and subsequently claimed an enviable Emma McKeon prize pack as part of our recent club giveaway. Cobar Swimming Club services the Cobar Shire in mid-Western NSW, and currently has 115 members - its biggest membership base in years. Community and continuity are two of Cobar SC’s key strengths. Families have participated with and returned to the club for generations, with past members, now the parents of today, enrolling their own children to participate their weekly club nights and local carnivals!
To find out more about the club, we spoke to club committee members Rebecca Wyllie and Tanya Hodges.
Cobar SC in Depth
Cobar Memorial Pool boasts both an outdoor 50m pool and a smaller 18m heated pool, giving Cobar SC the ability to run club nights from October to March. Although the club would love to start fundraising for a 25m indoor pool, the 18m heated pool allows swimmers to continue training past the summer season. The impact of this extra training time really became evident earlier this year when two swimmers qualified for the PSSA State Championships.
Cobar offers three squads which cater to swimmers of all ages and abilities. The squads are run by the pool itself, however squad
members are also encouraged to join the club. With the generous support of local businesses, Cobar SC was able to provide one free swimming lesson per week to members of the club, helping to get kids involved in club swimming while also teaching valuable survival skills. Cobar SC credits their success in attracting new members this season to this initiative.
Members of Cobar SC observed kids at school swimming carnivals struggling to swim 50m, and created a solution to fill this need in their community. Cobar SC offer a free lesson per week with the goal of seeing all kids who participate at their club, complete 50m successfully. As they have minimal coaching opportunities available, the club’s parents including Rebecca and Tanya have done coaching courses to help kids become more proficient swimmers.
What's next for Cobar SC
The club has just recently hosted their annual carnival, which attracts swimmers from across NSW including Tamworth, Dubbo, Broken Hill and even Sydney. They had greater success this year in hosting their carnival, after experiencing a major storm at the end of last year’s carnival that involved flying gazebo tents! Luckily the wild weather didn’t deter swimmers from returning.
This year the club hosted more Technical Officials, and SNSW Regional Coaching Director Chris Myers, who attend the carnival and ran a session with the swimmers.
Cobar SC would love to continue building on their carnival presence in terms of travelling to other carnivals to ensure their swimmers are getting quality racing experience, to hopefully retain some of their older swimmers.
They also host weekly club nights on a Wednesday night which anyone is welcome to come and join.
Find and Contact Cobar SC
Club pool: Cobar Memorial Pool, Prince St, Cobar
Follow Cobar SC on Facebook
Want to be featured in the next Clubs in Depth?
- Get in touch with us
- Purpose of Clubs in Depth initiative
Contact Olivia Kapocius (admin@nsw.swimming.org.au) to organise an interview.
The purpose of Clubs in Depth is to promote NSW-based clubs to both the Swimming NSW and broader community in order to increase engagement and participation. The article is distributed via our website, social media channels, the Hot Off the Blocks Newsletter and Swimmer Magazine.
Swimming NSW will also provide featured clubs with a modified copy of their article so it can be distributed to local media outlets as a new member and community engagement tool.
