Our Head Coach James Hand
James is a Swim Ireland Level 3 Coach and former Irish International Swimmer. James had a very successful swimming career at Ulster and Irish level, culminating in his selection for the 1998 Commonwealth Games before injury brought his swimming career to an early end. James has been coaching for over 10 years working as a Junior & Age Group coach with Bangor, and more recently Performance and Assistance Head Coach with Ards.
Junior Lead Coach Robbie Dougan
In his previous coaching role Robbie worked as head coach of Alliance, was lead coach for Ulster Schools including lead coach for the ‘Wavebreaker’ Learn to Swim Programme. Robbie has a wealth of previous coaching experience and was awarded ‘Coach of the Year’ in 2020 by Swim Ulster. Robbie coaches across Age Group & Junior Squads
Coach Richard Morrow
Richard is a Level 2 coach. Richard coaches our Age Group squads. In his early career Richard swam for Bangor, Ulster and Ireland and is a former Bangor Swimming Club Captain, as well as captaining the Irelnd Swim team at the first ever Junior Olympics in Brussels in 1991. Richard represented Ireland at the Multination’s Championships through the 90’s and represented Itreland at the European Junior Championships through the 90’s. He was a Commonwealth Games panellist in 1994 and 1998 and is a former Ulster record holder and Ulster and Irish Champion for the 200m Freestyle.
Coach Sarah Reynolds
Sarah Reynolds was a regional medalist and national age group finalist in Swim England competing in GB swim nationals in 1996 and 1997. Sarah was selected for the Swim 200 national squad ubder the coaching of GB coach Ian Turner. Educationally she has achieved a 2.1 BsSc Coaching SCience (Hons) from Liverpool John Moore’s University specialising in swimming. Having lecturing experience in Further and Higher Education in this field. With over 20 years of swim teaching and coaching experience Sarah is continuing to grow professionally with Swim Ireland qualifications. A full level 2 swim teacher and with the aim to be a full Swim Ireland level 2 coach by the end of Jan 2025.
