Australian coach Dean Pugh lost his battle with adenocarcinoma lung cancer this week, dying in his sleep surrounded by his family and friends.
On June 8, Pugh was admitted to the hospital with a collapsed lung. After a procedure to clear the lung of fluid, the doctors determined that he has cancer and will need treatment for it. According to his GoFundMe page, he was set to be treated with “a mix of radiation, chemo and immunology.”
Drew McGregor, Coach Director of Swimming Queensland, said of Pugh’s passing, “I have known Dean personally for 20 years, he was a great support to me as a young coach when I was starting out, and continued to give that
support even on my last visit to see him in the hospital where all he wanted to speak about was the racing at Qld States and what SQ should be doing to help coaches and athletes in their pathways.”
McGregor also recounted Pugh’s career as follows:
Dean had a long career in coaching, he started out at the Macgregor swimming club in the late 90’s, building the club to be successful at Age level, from there he left to become the Director of coaching at Brisbane Grammar school, where he took the school to Top 3 at the prestigious GPS Championships, Top 5 in Queensland and Top 10 at
Australian Age
In 2008 he started his own business working with and establishing other programs such as John Paul College and the Logan Vikings swimming clubs. Dean had success at every level of coaching, where he developed all rounded athletes’ with great capacities and technical abilities, with many going on to reach Australian team status – Keryn McMaster, Kieren Carrigan, Mitch Larkin, and George O’Brien.
If you spent any time Dean it didn’t matter what subject you started talking about, you would know it would always end up going to swimming, what’s new, what can be done, what’s going on in the international world – he absolutely loved everything to do with swimming, he had an amazing mind for stats, swimming history and forward thinking for the sport.
I will miss our conversations and I will miss his friendship.