Coaches

Ian Wright

Ian Wright is Warrender's full-time professional Head Coach.  Ian joined Warrender as a senior swimmer in National Squad in late 1995 when he came to Edinburgh to study for his Masters degree.  He took over as the coach in the summer of 1996 and has been ever present since.  During that time he has led the club to 8 consecutive East District Top Club titles, and 4 Top Club awards at the Scottish National Championships.  He has also overseen the steady growth of the club from less than 100 members to over 200 today, and ensured the club is continually a leading player in British swimming.  He has been selected as coach to several British and Scottish representative teams including the 2006 European Championships in Budapest.

Laurel Bailey

Laurel Bailey is Warrender's Director of Age Group Swimming and as such heads up the coaching of both Junior National and Age Group squads.  Laurel hails from Melbourne, Australia and took up the position with Warrender after obtaining a working visa for this country.  In a short space of time Laurel has quickly established herself as one of the most promising young coaches in Scotland and the improvements of the swimmers under her charge has been nothing short of dramatic.

An unprecedented five Junior National Squad swimmers qualified for the 2007 British National Age Group Championships whilst over 20 swimmers from Laurel's two squads were selected for the 2006-07 Scottish Regional District Programme.  Such results have not gone unnoticed either and Laurel gained her first international coaching selection as one of the staff for the Scottish Youth Squad trip to the 2007 Darmstadt International Meet in Germany.

Gail Smith

Gail Smith is the Lead Coach at the club's entry level squad (Development 1).  Development 1 (D1) is split into two sections (White and Red) and provides coaching for approximately 40 swimmers training 3 times per week.  Gail is very passionate about swimming and has worked with various squads within Warrender over many years.  She has a wide experience of swimming at all levels and has in the last 8 years successfully built up herown swimming lessons company, SwimEasy Limited.  SwimEasy provide high quality swimming lessons for children aged 2 to 10 years and have become the largest independent swimming school in Scotland. 

Gail recognised the importance of swimming at an early age and has watched her two sons (both Warrender Swimmers) become among the leading swimmers in Britain.  Eldest son Taylor was the Scottish Junior Breaststroke Champion and just missed out on the qualification standard for the Scottish Commonwealth Games team.  Younger brother Lewis represented Great Britain at the European Junior Championships in 2005 and 2006, and also at the European Senior Championships in 2006. He also represented Scotland at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia winning two silver medals and was awarded the OCS Regional Young Sports Person of the Year 2005. 

Gail takes great pleasure in observing and tracking every swimmer in the Development 1 Squad especially when they progress on through the club into other squads.  One of her goals is to see a Warrender swimmer who has first progressed through her lessons programme reach the Olympic arena.  She takes every opportunity to learn more about the wider aspects of the sport of swimming and attended the Olympic Games in both Sydney and Athens and this years World Championships in Melbourne as part of her professional development.