Port Macquarie Swimming Club coach Cheryl Neville heads into retirement

Come next week, the Port Macquarie Swimming Club coach will no longer have to set the alarm for 3.30am every day.

The regular 4am starts at the pool have worn her down and she has retired from her position.

"I was going to do it after nationals last year but they got cancelled because of COVID and the kids wanted me to keep going, so I did," she said.

While she won't miss the early rises, Neville admits she will miss the relationships she has formed with her swimmers.

It would be rude for her to single out who were her favourites to coach because there have been many.

"It's about making the kids the best they can be ... that's what you're there for - getting the smallest improvement out of the slowest kid in the squad," she said.

The excitement she once drew from coaching simply isn't there as much as it once was, the pool icon admitted.

"I haven't wanted to go to carnivals like I used to and coaching needs someone with enthusiasm because that's what the kids deserve," she said.

"It's time for someone with new ideas; you need that every now and then."

Neville moved to Port Macquarie in October 2006 from Coffs Harbour following a 26-year stay that included a seven-year management role at the pool.

"My late husband John and I took over the lease in Coffs Harbour in 1980 and when he died in 1999 I stayed there until 2006, managing the pool for seven years," she said.

"I did learn-to-swim there and then got into coaching and took the pool over after he passed."

She momentarily searched for employment as a bookkeeper before a phone call from former Port Macquarie coach Michael Mullens put an end to that.

At the time he was looking for an assistant coach. The rest is history.

"I came down to Port for 12 months to see if I liked the area and then I came down full-time in October 2006," she said.

"I was trying to get somewhere with the council at Coffs and not getting anywhere so then I sold the lease and got out of debt."

As it turned out, Neville's swansong appearance with Port Macquarie was at the national titles in April.

"I won't miss the early mornings, the only thing I will miss are the kids and the people you work with at the pool," she said.

She said the club was in need of some new blood to help continue Port Macquarie's success at developing talented swimmers.

"Whoever comes on board will hopefully have the new pool down the track so it will give them a fantastic complex to coach out of," she said.

"I've got a lot of experience, but I think they need someone young."

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