2020/21 Club Coach of the Year: Brett Mathison - Westfields

17 September 2021

2020/21 Club Coach of the Year: Brett Mathison - Westfields

Last month Brett Mathison was named Athletics NSW’s 2020/21 club coach of the year. Involved in the Westfields Sports High club program, Mathison plays that key role of taking athletes from across event groups and from varying levels.

Athletes of all levels seek common elements from sport – improvement, wellbeing social connection and a sence of belonging – all aspects Mathison has generated in spades in his squad.

“I love helping the young athletes get the best out of themselves,” said Mathison who also notes how lessons learned in sport can have a broader impact on their lives.

“The athletes start to see they can apply parts of the training principals to all areas of their lives. They start becoming strong, disciplined young people with great time management skills, and have positive self-esteem and confidence. They soon learn how to deal with setbacks and become resilient.”

As he has developed as a coach, Mathison has learned three key lessons:

• A need for patience.
• Be prepared to become an adaptable coach, no two athletes are the same.
• Sometimes young athletes are just not as passionate or as engaged in the sport as you are. They may do it for many reasons including, ‘I’m good at it, my parents want me to do it or my friends are doing it’.

Mathison’s squad is a mix of middle distance to endurance athletes, ranging from 200m/400m, race walkers to middle and long distances runners. They compete in steeplechase, on the road and track and in cross country year-round.

While he currently keeps fit running and competing in race walking events, Mathison was a handy athlete himself. As a junior he won a national steeplechase medal and claimed 42 state medals. Amazingly as a senior athlete he placed top-10 on three occasions at World Triathlon/duathlon Championships and also posted a 9 hours 30 minutes in the Australian Ironman Championships.

His start in coaching was with a group of athletes from the Sydney South West Regional Athletics carnival who were preparing for the State carnival - Combined High Schools (CHS). This was in 2008 and it all evolved from there.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Brett Mathison and squad at the Westfields Club’s AGM