Coach. Mentor. Friend.
Icon.
Dick Caine has turned countless local athletes into champions in his time as a coach. He and his wife, Jenny, have leased the Carss Park Memorial Pool for half a century. It is there that he also just taught people to swim or improve their fitness in the gym.
He pushed them. He inspired them. He helped give them a better life.
And he guided a legion of athletes to higher achievements.
An appreciation dinner to honour Team Caine will be held at Club Central Hurstville on Thursday night, hosted by Wallabies legend Phil Kearns, with many of Caine’s former athletes from his 50-year career – Lance Thompson, John Holt, Stacey Gartrell, Gary Sutton, Brett Dutton, Stuart Dutton, Jeff Fenech and Selina Gilsenan – to attend.
He has coached 17 world and Olympic champions as well as St George Illawarra rugby league teams. His stable over the years has included swimming greats Michelle Ford, Susie Maroney, Janelle Elford and Gartrell as well as triathlon stars Michellie Jones, Greg Welch and Chris McCormack.
Former Australian rugby union captain Kearns, rugby league stars including Thompson, the Dutton brothers – Olympic cycling medallist Brett and Australian Open surf champion Stuart – and boxing world champions Fenech, Anthony Mundine and Kostya Tszyu have also spent time under Caine’s watchful eye.
A number of Caine’s athletes aren’t able to be there on the night and have penned tributes detailing their experiences of Caine’s methods. The endless hours of effort, the memories of working towards achieving excellence. They include five-time world triathlon champion McCormack, who won his first world title as a 22-year-old within five months of having joined Caine.
“Growing up in the shire, everybody had heard the training stories of Dick Caine. They were legendary,” McCormack said.
“The best surf and pool swimmers in the world came out of that pool and I never saw myself as worthy of being able to swim laps in the pool of such fish. I was most certainly a land mammal. Triathlon is a sport of swim, bike and run. The biking and running component I had mastered and was at the top of the world. My swim was a vulnerability. Winning world championships you have to close those gaps and not leave anything to chance.
“We turned up and parked in the parking lot. [My best mate] Sean [Maroney] walked straight through the front gate, said hi to Jenny.
“’Jenny this is my friend Chris, we are going to speak to Dick.’ She gave her always approving smile and nod and in we walked. That meeting would change my life. I shook Dick’s hand and introduced myself.
“’I need to swim better, Dick, and was praying you would let me swim here with you. I am a triathlete and I want to win the World Championships which are exactly 17 weeks away.’
“He looked at me, was wearing purple speedos with a white shirt and holding a pull buoy and a set of fins. At the same time he was listening he would yell at the kids in lane eight.
“’I am not god, this is not a church and I can’t do miracles, so praying is not going to help you much at all.’
“I loved his humour and his wit and the respect he commanded as a coach. I looked at him and didn’t know if this was a yes or a no.”
It was a yes. McCormack went on to win that first world title.
“It is more than the training. It is the culture and the honesty that comes out of that pool,” McCormack said.
“The ‘anything is possible’ attitude that has been the catalyst for so many champions. It was the greatest moment in my life at that point and still something I remember like it was yesterday.”
Olympic swimmer Elford had the words “hard work” redefined in her time under Caine.
"As I walked into Carss Park War Memorial Pool on this Wednesday afternoon I felt pure trepidation,” she wrote.
“Dick Caine was notorious for being hard, demanding, colourful but also known to produce many champions. I sat in his office where the gym is now as Dick asked me questions. He asked what I wanted to do with swimming. I was nervous at the time and said I wanted to make the Olympics. I remember him saying, ‘well, that will take a lot of hard work.’
It is more than the training. It is the culture and the honesty that comes out of that pool. The 'anything is possible' attitude that has been the catalyst for so many champions.
- Chris McCormack on Dick Caine
“I nodded, as I thought I knew what this meant. But clearly I had no idea.”
ITU hall of fame athlete and Olympic silver medalist Jones also paid tribute to Team Caine.
“I feel extremely fortunate that [they] both helped me in so many ways. I am truly grateful for the many hours I have spent not only swimming up and down the lanes of Carss Park but more importantly the dinners, sleep overs and conversations we have shared,” she said.
“It wasn’t always easy getting up at the crack of dawn and jumping into the pool… but deep down I always knew [they] both cared deeply about me and wanted me to succeed.”
Caine’s legacy is not restricted to the pool or the gym.
Away from sport he has raised millions of dollars for charities including St George Hospital, Cancer Care and the Bali Christmas Remembrance Day. He has also helped local Lions and Rotary clubs as well as many sporting clubs and schools.
