Volunteering! A TO’s Journey

Anyone that has been to a Dolphins Swim Night, or a presentation event will have met our amazing Referee and Life Member Michael Tuohy. To celebrate Michael’s involvement with our Club and acknowledging National Volunteer Week 2025, we took a dive into what drives Michael to continue his involvement in volunteering at a local and regional level as a Technical Official for Swimming Metro North West and Swimming NSW.

When did you join the Riverstone Dolphins?
I joined the Dolphins when I purchased a membership for my son in the summer of 2005.

When did you start as a Technical Official?
I actually completed my first accreditation, that of Timekeeper, in 2008 but almost immediately after joining the club in 2005 I was volunteering to Time keep each Thursday night. At that time there was three or four of us dads who volunteered each week. It was a great way to watch our kids swim, have a chat through the night, plus coffee & cake, we had a good time.

How was your progression as a Technical Official after that?
I was quite happy as just a Timekeeper but in 2011 – 2012 as always, people come and go from the swim club and the then Starter was taking over the role as Race Secretary, so someone needed to be the Starter and my hand went up. Again, in that role, I was just happy to be the Starter.

Also at the time, the Riverstone Dolphins had Gordon and Val Fenbow as Referee’s. They did a great job. Val was a Level 2 Referee, Nationally qualified, who was often attending State or National Meets. It became obvious over the next couple of seasons that someone would need to assist Gordon on the pool deck as a Judge of Stroke.

When did you decide to be a Referee?
Towards the end of the 2014 – 2015 summer season I started to get serious about officiating. I was fortunate that Gordon from the Dolphins also Refereed at Blacktown Swim Club, his primary club, so during that summer I was at the Riverstone Dolphins on Thursday night and Blacktown on a Friday night. Training at Blacktown also allowed me to work alongside a level 3 Referee, internationally qualified, Faye Lewis. That was great experience. That year I was assessed as Marshall & Check Starter. So, throughout 2015 – 2016 I was spending at least one weekend a month at swim carnivals, through summer it was at least two weekends a month, plus Thursday and Friday nights at club meets. I was assessed as Chief Timekeeper, Judge of Stroke, Inspector of Turns and Recorder in 2016.

Over the Winter and Summer Area Championships in 2017, I successfully completed my two practical assessments as Referee plus the mandatory 4 hour written exam.

Would you recommend becoming a volunteer Technical Official?
In every sport, for our kids to compete, there has to be official’s. In swimming, generally in every officiating role you are working alongside other people. Along with making event organisation easier, there is always an opportunity to chat, laugh and watch the swimming close up. There is a camaraderie amongst officials and being around the athletes is a small opportunity to escape the stresses of the world
and to a big degree, relax. You do need to give up time but there is so much to benefit from volunteering, I think it is well worth it.

Thanks for your time and inspiration Michael! We would love for anyone to interested in joining our fantastic technical official team to reach out on riverstonedolphins@gmail.com some more information here on opportunities.

 

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