"Humbling" and "surprised" were the two words used by a local swimming coach when she found out she was nominated for a state award.
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Gunnedah's Pat McAdam was recently announced as a 2020 finalist of the Sport NSW Community Sports Awards in the Community Coach Category.
She has more than 50 years of coaching experience and has coached teams at several levels, including taking a team to the Australian Olympic trials.
A competitive swimmer herself, Ms McAdam has also represented Gunnedah at state, country and national competitions.
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Ms McAdam's exceptional service to the sport of swimming has seen several generations of Gunnedah children develop self-confidence and reach their potential.
She told the NVI that coaching was what "gets me out of bed in the morning", and that it wasn't a chore, so to "find that someone thinks that's remarkable is quite amazing".
"There's a lot of people out there doing things like I do and to me it's just what I do," she said.
Ms McAdam started swimming in Gunnedah before she joined the Navy and coached the Navy inter-service team for about seven years.
After that, she moved to Perth and continued coaching and teaching, before retiring from full-time work and moving back to Gunnedah.
"In summer, I coach and mentor at Werris Creek, and year-round I run a swimming session for the tri club where we take teenagers and adults, and I do fitness training with them and stroke correction," she said.
"I push the triathlete swimmers a bit more than they would push themselves and give them a more balanced program."
Aside from swimming, Ms McAdam says she has two grandchildren that she's closely involved with, and spends time with her son, daughter, and daughter-in-law in town.
She doesn't think she'll ever stop coaching, though.
"I can't imagine it, I couldn't contemplate that would ever happen," she said.
Announcements for the winners of the awards will be made later in the year.