Congratulations to Andrew Henderson for being selected as Red Dog’s Athlete of the Month for Februart 2023.

Andrew wins this month's award for his outstanding performances at the Noosa Summer Swim, finishing 3rd in the 3km and 2nd in the 1km in his age group and showing up a number of the young bucks in the squad.

A big thank you to our sponsors for donating this month’s prizes.

1.Red Dog AOTM, how do you feel about that?

I’ll echo the previous recipients and say I’m surprised, stoked, shocked, grateful, and mostly humbled to join such a talented group of athletes, thanks to the kind sponsors and the AOTM selection committee, 145 months is a long wait.

2. What attracted you to the club?

Having started my middle age swimming comeback at another squad, I would often hear tales of this no nonsense very professional coach at the VP, who insisted on everyone completing scary 3 km sets, sounded ideal, I arrived one Friday in 2010, introduced myself, Red Dog pointed to lane 8 and away we went.

3. How much training do you do at the moment?

Training consists of three to four swim squads a week, with the occasional ocean swim around this time of the year.

4. What’s your favourite session and why?

Without doubt Friday morning swim squads, not only because I like the pull buoy & band sets, but I also greatly enjoy the early mornings, having spent most of my sporting life in a rowing boat, pre-dawn starts were standard practice, the only time to train.

 5. Who’s your ideal training partner and why?

The whole squad are ideal, pleasing to train with such committed athletes who overall display a great deal of respect towards each other, priceless.

6. Favourite motivational quote?

I feel this Muhammad Ali quote is increasingly appropriate, “Don’t count the days, make the days count”. From a training perspective, the great Ron Barassi and I like this simple mantra “Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect”.

7. The one bit of advice I’d give to a newbie is…

Don’t be afraid to join in everything, make yourself known, respect and learn from the experienced heads around you, remember, it doesn’t matter how slow you are as long as you don’t stop!

8. What’s your next event?

Always enjoy the World Series Swims, Coolangatta most likely the next event.

 9. What do you do outside of training?

Work, family, overseas travel now back on the agenda, being the ideal husband?

10. What’s your one guilty pleasure?

Tasmanian Pinot, Nana naps.

A list of all AOTM recipients can be found here