Carmel Ecker
Staff writer

Two athletes from CFB Esquimalt brought home the honours of Female Athlete of the Year and Coach of the Year from the 14th annual Canadian Forces Sports Awards in Ottawa Oct. 5.

Swimmers Lt(N) Heather Beynon and Lt(N) Tony Zezza accepted their awards and had their photos taken with Chief of the Defence Staff, General Raymond Henault. "It was like the Emmies," Lt(N) Beynon says of the award ceremony's atmosphere. "It's one of those things you want your parents to be at."

"It's quite an honour and I'm quite proud of all of us because it truly was a team effort," says Lt(N) Zezza, who coaches the Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) Masters Swim Team, which was named Maritime Team of the Year.

"We really had an excellent year in the pool," he says.

Along with his coach of the year award, Lt(N) Zezza received a $250 gift certificate toward further coaching certification from 3M. He says he'll put it toward his level three coaching course, which fills the criteria for becoming CISM (Conseil Internationale Sport du Militaire) swim team coach, a position he'd like to hold.

Lieutenants Beynon and Zezza have spent most of their lives in the water, beginning their competitive swimming careers before age 10.

An avid swimmer who seems to prefer water to land, Lt(N) Beynon has swam competitively since age seven.

She's taken home her fair share of team and individual awards over the years for Masters, Canadian Forces and CISM swim competitions. She has so many medals that she keeps them in shoeboxes, she says.

"I don't swim to receive awards. I swim because I love swimming."

After graduating from high school, she was offered a scholarship as a swimmer and diver at an American university, but turned it down to stay in Canada. Instead, she joined the navy with her twin sister, Lt(N) Laurie Beynon, whom she trains with in the pool.

Her sister and older brother Toby share Lt(N) Beynon's love of water. Their parents had to cover the car windows with towels on family road trips to keep the children from seeing the many lakes that line Northern Ontario's roads, because, she says, they demanded to swim in every lake they saw.

Lt(N) Zezza began competitive swimming at age nine. He stayed active in aquatics until 18 when he joined the navy.

Gaining a career and then a family, he had little time for training and abandoned the pool for several years. But six years ago when his children's elementary school asked for volunteer coaches for a swim program, Lt(N) Zezza couldn't resist the opportunity to jump back in the pool.

He got his novice coaching certificate, followed by levels one and two. He stepped up to coach the newly formed base swim team four years ago.

"Coaching is very easy as long as you try to meet everyone's needs," he says. "Although that sounds like a tall order, I'm very fortunate that we have an excellent mix of swimmers and swimming abilities."

Both athletes swim about four times a week. Lt(N) Zezza trains mainly with the MARPAC swim team, but Lt(N) Beynon also trains with the Tyee Masters and Victoria Masters swim clubs.

While Lt(N) Zezza works to become a better coach, Lt(N) Beynon has decided to take her athletic talents in a new direction. She began training for triathlons this year and competed in her first three events over the summer.

"I'm at a stage where I really would like to try something new and the biking and running is relatively new for me."