At the end January 2022, Peterlee’s Head Coach, Gill Hulme, retired from her roles within the club. Her son Chris as written to following tribute to her coaching career and time at the club.
Gill started her association with Peterlee ASC in the late 1980s when her 3 sons – Chris, Ian and Robert – started their swimming lessons as part of the ‘Learn to Swim’ scheme that the leisure centre operated. Initially, Gill only wanted her 3 sons to be competent enough swimmers so they could enjoy the water without being worried for their safety but given the competitive nature that runs through the family (Gill was a competent 100m/200m runner in her youth, hockey and netball player), the boys quickly progressed into the club and became competitive swimmers. Initially, Gill spent hours a week sitting on the balcony overlooking the pool watching her sons swim but quickly decided this wasn’t for her and therefore offered her teaching services to the club – Gill is a trained PE teacher having started her teaching career in the mid-1970s before progressing to Leisure and Tourism at the turn of the Century. Gill started teaching in the small pool to begin with as well as the beginner groups in the main pool, but quickly started filling in for the Head Coach when they were unavailable, including helping out on at competitions on a weekend. When Geoff Peart arrived in the mid-1990s, he quickly recognised Gill’s talents and promoted her to be his Assistant Coach, which meant that Gill was on poolside coaching the Development Squad at the club. By this point, Gill’s sons were highly competitive swimmers competing across the county and region most weekends which saw her spend every weekend transporting her sons to the competitions.
At the turn of the Century, when Geoff decided to move on to develop his coaching career further, Gill took over the reins and became Head Coach of the club. By this point her eldest son, Chris, had joined the City of Newcastle Swimming Club so was no longer a regular at the club. Ian, her middle son and the most talented swimmer of her sons was starting to train with the City of Newcastle Swimming Club a couple of times a week and her youngest son, Robert, was promoted to the highest squad at the club. However, even though it was obvious that there was now no longer a family connection to keep Gill at the club, being the person she is, Gill was determined for the club to maintain the success it had had over the previous 4 or 5 years under Geoff’s guidance and set about rebuilding the club by developing the younger squads and ensuring that a clear pathway was created throughout all of the squads. Despite her sons eventually moving on to other clubs that catered for senior swimmers, Gill was dedicated to Peterlee Swimming Club and oversaw years of success including multiple N&D winners, medallists and finalists; multiple NER winners, medallists and finalists and several age-group National swimmers of which some of these swimmers made finals at these Championships – upon retirement, Gill was Head Coach at Peterlee for 21 years.
Gill was an extremely popular coach on the poolside at competitions and was well respected by everyone who knew her. When several of the Durham clubs merged together to form ‘Durham Aquatics’ at the start of the Century, Gill offered her services by helping out at sessions and at competitions. More recently, Gill has formed a strong connection with Paul Woodley at Derwentside Swimming Club meaning that Gill sent her stronger swimmers to train with Paul so they could experience senior swimming. Also, when Paul created the ‘Durham Hub’ to create a clear pathway for all of the clubs to train together and set about restoring N & D to its former glories, Gill was a huge support to Paul and the project he was implementing and was regularly seen on poolside coaching all of the swimmers and taking an active role. Indeed, despite her substantial experience on the poolside, Gill was always keen to improve and regularly implemented things she had seen in these sessions back in her home program at Peterlee. Gill was also an active member of the coaches’ forums and made sure she got her view across in a constructive manner making sure her thoughts and opinions were based on what was correct for all of the clubs concerned, and her thoughts were greatly received.
Gill has decided to retire so that she can spend time with her adorable grandchildren – Daniel, James, Ella, Sienna, Jack, Alexa and baby Max – but you will still see her around as her grandson James has started competing for Peterlee Swimming Club.
The North East Region and the Northumberland and Durham would like to thank Gill for her contribution to aquatic sport within the area and wish her all the best with her retirement.
