About Millfield News
Olympic Swimmer Dale Returns to Millfield
Millfield are delighted to announce the addition of two new coaches to their Swimming Team, with the appointments of Clare Blackwell and Euan Dale. Blackwell and Dale bring a wealth of experience and success in both international swimming and residential school programs, and a string of titles from US High Schools, NCAA, Commonwealth Games and British National Championships between them.
For Dale, joining the coaching staff is a return to Millfield, where he studied and swam for seven years, setting multiple school records and winning National Age Group titles in 200m Breaststroke, 200m Individual Medley, 400m IM, 4x100m Freestyle Relay, 4x200m Freestyle Relay and 4x100m Medley Relay. The School launched his career to Loughborough University and on to the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2008 Olympics, before taking his coaching qualifications and leading the Warrender Swimming Club in Edinburgh. Dale has never lost his passion for Millfield, and the current squad will benefit further from his skills developed as a mentor in the Winning Scotland Foundation's Champions in Schools programme.
Blackwell is equally well known to the current squad, having been assisting with coaching for the past term, since relocating to the West Country from her native USA. Her swimming pedigree is extensive, including captaining the NCAA Champion Denison University Team and being selected as a two-time all American, before turning to coaching with the National Champion Bolles High School in Florida. The Bolles program included boarding and day pupils, and Blackwell took additional responsibility for counselling and pastoral care.
Millfield Director of Swimming, Jolyon Finck, said "We are absolutely delighted to welcome Clare and Euan to the Millfield Swimming coaching staff. Their collective experiences in swimming at the highest level will no doubt enrich the program in a variety of ways. The swimmers have already experienced this with Clare in the past few weeks and we are looking forward to building on our current success." Blackwell and Dale will both join Millfield full time in the new academic year starting September 2010.
