Head coach:  Gareth Davis

The head coach is Gareth Davis, who first joined us in 2021 when he and his family moved to West Devon from Cambridgeshire.  Before moving, he was a volunteer assistant coach with his daughter’s club, the St Neots Swans Swimming Club.  He had enjoyed that role so much that he decided to offer his services to TSC.  We were delighted to welcome him to the club and he quickly established himself as a very valuable member of the coaching team. 

From the outset, it was clear he approached coaching differently from many assistant coaches, thinking about what he was doing and why he was doing it rather than mechanically delivering a set which the main coach had written.  It was no surprise when in 2022 he took a step up and completed his Swim England Level 2 “Coach” qualification.  Two years’ later, when James Lake stood down at head coach, Gareth was the natural choice to replace him. 

Gareth is also a J1 swimming official.  Fun fact: he did a Maths degree at the age of 45.

Other regular coaches:

Nathaniel Rookes
Jacob Cacchione
Ieuan Noakes
James Lake

Jacob Cacchione was a high level swimmer before moving on to coaching. He came to us as an Assistant Coach in January 2024 and, since then, has attained the Swim England Coach certificate.  He is also an experienced swimming teacher, having volunteered since the age of 14 and taught at both Newton Abbot and Buckfastleigh.  His enthusiasm for coaching is obvious: you’ll spot it if you talk to him and you can infer it from his willingness, when he initially joined us, to endure the bus journey from Plymouth to come and work for TSC.

Occasional coaches:

Amber Francis
Claire Palmer 
Claire Small
Izzy Teague
Amy Warnett

Amber Francis is another former club member and club captain.  She won the Swim England Young Volunteer of the Year award in 2017 for her work with the club and we were delighted when, after a few years away, she turned up back in Tavistock.  She is now helping to run Meadowlands pool as well as coaching for us. 

Claire Palmer first became involved with the club when looking for a way of helping her son keep fit during the rugby off-season.  It turned out to be a serendipitous decision.  Both her children became enthusiastic swimmers: her son discovered a gift for distance swimming; his younger sister, when asked, says she “really, really loves” the sport.  Claire is a Level 2 Swim England Judge as well as an assistant coach.  She’s also the club’s “social secretary”: the parties and the summer trips to Adrenaline Quarry are thanks to her hard work and organisation.  During the coronavirus pandemic, she took on the thankless role of Covid-19 Lead, keeping up to date with the seemingly endless (and ever-changing) restrictions and helping the club to navigate its way through them. 

Claire Small joined the club as a child and is now at university, training to become a sports teacher. She is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher who also has a talent for netball. She has a particular gift for persuading very shy or anxious children to give things a go: many a time, a child who initially wanted to run back to the changing rooms in tears has, thanks to her gentle coaxing, finished a training session wreathed in smiles.

Izzy Teague is also a “home-grown” coach, having joined the club at the age of 10. She went on to swim at regional level and became a club captain, before moving away to university. When she returned, she somehow managed to fit qualifying as a Swim England coach around a full-time, non-swimming related, job. She still swims with the club and in 2024 qualified for the Swim England National Masters Championships.

Amy Warnett first joined the club when she was eight years old.  She swam at local galas as a child and became the girls’ team captain, then took up open water swimming at the age of 16.  She has done the Plymouth Breakwater Swim twice, once in the impressive time of 46 minutes (your chairman took 1hr 27 minutes!)  She continued with indoor swimming during this time, and for a while held the Plymouth City Championships record for the 18 years and over 800m.  She has been involved in coaching since the age of 17 and for four years was the swim school co-ordinator at the leisure centre in Worcester.  In 2016, she moved back to Tavistock and now teaches swimming to children at Tavistock Primary School in addition to occasional coaching for the club on Wednesday evenings.  When she is not coaching or teaching swimming, you may see her working in Wetherspoons: if you do, be sure to say hello.

President and Welfare Officer:  Sue Dunstan

Sue has been involved with children and swimming for almost 50 years, ever since obtaining a swim teacher’s qualification to allow her to support primary school lessons and galas.  When the club started in 1990, she was one of the founder members and has been on the committee, either as an elected member or as President/ Vice-President, ever since, including spending three years as chairman.  This makes her an invaluable source of wisdom and experience, as well as a fount of knowledge about the club’s history and evolution.  She is also the chairman and secretary of the Meadowlands User Group.  

Vice-President:  Chris Anderson

Swimming has been a large part of Chris’s life since he learned to swim as a child in Kingston, and then went on to represent his county (Surrey) and the south of England from 1966 onwards.  After swimming at national level for several years, his high level representative swimming ended in the mid seventies.  However, he has maintained his links with swimming through his four children, as a masters’ swimmer and through officiating.  He has been involved with TSC for over 15 years and he is a qualified Swim England Referee.

Chairman:  Caroline Furze

Caroline took up swimming when her multiple sclerosis prevented her from running.  She joined the club in 2013, hoping to get faster.  Over 10 years later, she is exactly the same speed but she’s much fitter and has more friends.  However, please don’t take it personally if she doesn’t recognise you out of context: she has “face blindness” which has, on occasions, led to her blanking even members of her immediate family.

She joined the club committee in 2016 when someone was needed to take the minutes of meetings.  She knew nothing about either swimming or how the club was organised but the then existing committee were patient with their explanations (they had to be; left to herself, the minutes would have been nonsense).  From there she has somehow ended up as chairman: knowing a little more, perhaps, but having not forgotten what it was like to feel a complete outsider.  Fun fact: she once won a year’s supply of chocolate.

Other committee members:

Lisa France
Katy Kelly
Lindi McKechnie
Mel Oxborough (treasurer)
Claire Palmer
Liam Sebag-Montefiore
Henry Shearman
Sarah Shutt