Sheila Swan
(from 2007 when she coached the British Universities Team)
(from 2007 when she coached the British Universities Team)
Because of continuing delays in the paperwork allowing Alberta's Tony Zummack to relocate to Scotland and take up his position as National Coach, Dave Crosbee, British Curling's new Performance Director, has confirmed that Sheila Swan will be in charge of the Scotland team in at the 2011 World Championships in Prague.
Sheila played on Jackie Lockhart's World Champion team in 2002, and is currently the Royal Caledonian Club's Development Manager - Adults and Disabilities.
Tony is keen to take up his responsibilities and told me today: "I was very glad to see all eight athletes from the National Squad playing in the final three games in Lanarkshire.
"To see Scotland reach the final against Canada should give the squad a sense of confidence heading to Prague.
"While I wish I was there now I have full confidence in Sheila Swan as she knows the athlete's quite well as she was with them in Vancouver. Preparations are ongoing and I look forward to the day I am there to meet the entire team and staff."
6 comments:
In reply to the comment by Tony '"While I wish I was there now I have full confidence in Sheila Swan as she knows the athlete's quite well as she was with them in Vancouver'
Sheila has been working with the team and development teams for a number of years going back to around 2006. She has been with them at most of the events during the last 2 years plus most of their training camps. She has a very good rapport with all those involved including the support staff.
I think the continuity of having her involved is best for the team, given a new coach coming in just a few weeks before the worlds is nothing short of amateurish.
I should add to the above by saying.....also her experience of playing in 3 World Championships, (winning 1), Coaching the 2007 World Junior Champions, coach at the 2007 Universiade and has been assistant to Tom at the World Wheelchair Championship in 2009 and the 2010 Vancouver Winetr Paralympics.
I would suggest that Sheila is very well qualified to take charge of the team in Prague.
Sheila is obviously a very experienced coach.
Scotland's problem is that despite a generously funded program, financially subsidised athletes, and enormous experience in the squad, they were one of 5 nations tied for 5th in 2009, and one of 5 nations tied for 6th in 2010.
I would agree that changes need to be made because obviously whatever they are doing is not working.
That is the harsh reality....what has been done is not working. It appears they must have had a pretty good game with Canada last week. Any news about where they threw from, ice conditions, how they played, etc.?
It's not always just the coaching that is the issue, maybe the players have reached their maximum level. Given their wins at the worlds back in 2004 & 2005 and Silver at 2006 Paralympics happened when wheelchair curling was still in it's early days, maybe other country have progressed, while Scotland/GB has levelled. Interestingly in that period post 2006 a different skip was involved and argueable not as talented as Frank Duffy was. It will be interesting to see how the team do without that skip involved in team. Sometimes teams need direction from their Skip both in team dynamics and actual performance and in both the cases that seems to have been sadly lacking in the period from 2006/7 - 2010.
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