Josh Smith of Rackley Swimming Hibiscus crowned Brisbane southside best coach

In the space of four years, a Brisbane southside swimming coach has turned his local club into a competitive powerhouse. This is how he did it.

When swim coach Josh Smith was hired by Rackley Swimming in June 2017 to take over the top job at Upper Mount Gravatt’s Hibiscus Sports Complex, he had just 10 budding young swimmers to work with in the squads.

“Hibiscus was run more as a ‘learn to swim’ centre, but when (current owners) City Venue Management took over the centre about the same time as I came on board, they were just as keen to throw a lot of support behind the squads program,” Mr Smith told the Southern Star.

Fast forward four years and Rackley Swimming Hibiscus now has 190 bright talents enrolled in the squads program, 10 of whom made it to last year’s time trials for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

“There was nothing at Klumpp Rd when we started, now we’ve got the pool heated, we’ve grown numbers and become quite competitive over a short period of time,” Mr Smith said.

“We needed to establish a really good product and that’s what we’ve built.

Rackley Swimming Hibiscus Head Coach Josh Smith. Picture: Supplied/ Wade J Brennan

“A lot of our swimmers are talented but they’re not the most talented out there, they’re just really good kids and hard workers, when you get lots people like that pulling same direction you can build something quite quickly.”

The accolades continue to build up for Mr Smith, who has coached extensively, after he was voted Best Sports Coach on Brisbane’s Southside by Southern Star and South-East Advertiser readers.

“It’s nice, good to know people appreciate what I do, but it’s also a hard one to put into words as there are plenty of coaches out there, my centre’s the same, who have just as much passion as I do,” Mr Smith said.

Rackley Swimming Hibiscus Head Coach Josh Smith. Picture: Supplied/ Wade J Brennan

For Mr Smith, this involves up to 14-hour work days, all while juggling fatherhood – he and his wife had their first child together in December.

“You’ve got to work all the time in a job like this,” Mr Smith said.

“I’m pretty well supported by wife, she’s also a swim coach so she knows what it’s about, she actually gets it, but I’m still trying to figure it (juggling time constraints).