Caps off to pocket rocket
SHE was a promising swimmer who had already competed on the national stage and was planning with her coach to get herself to the next level.
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Yet it was her skills out of the pool which endeared her to the many who called Jade Frith a friend.
The Coal Point 15-year-old died on Thursday, two days after she was struck by a car as she attempted to cross Hillsborough Road to get to swimming training with the Novocastrian Swim Club.
The loss has shattered the Hunter swimming community as they attempt to mourn one of the brightest, most talented and well-liked.
Devastated coach Adam Beisler said one of Jade’s true talents was leading the club as its captain despite being three years younger than some of its members.
"The way she was able to connect with anyone was a gift and one of the reasons she excelled as club captain."
- Novocastrian Swim Club coach Adam Beisler
“Realistically, she was just on her way to her potential, she was still so young and had so much more to do and give,’’ Mr Beisler said.
“She made friends easily, not just locally, not even just in Sydney, but nationally.
“More than anything, she was sweet.
“The way she was able to connect with anyone was a gift and one of the reasons she excelled as club captain.
“Whether it was a five-year-old girl or an 18-year-old boy, one of the kids learning to swim to those heading to Olympic trials, she could connect with them.
“She was such a treasure in that sense.’’
Just a few days before the tragedy, Jade and Mr Beisler had spoken about her increasing her training to help reach her potential as a breaststroke and medley swimmer.
Her coach said she had put in a shocker on Tuesday morning and was keen to make amends in the afternoon.
“So she was dropped off by the bus on the other side of the road and unfortunately never made it across,’’ he said. “She was our pocket rocket.’’
The swimming club’s 100-odd members have remained close in the days following the incident, and were planning to head to a nearby service station en masse on Friday afternoon for an Icee – a frozen soft drink and a favourite of Jade’s after a hard training session.
Jade’s parents, Matthew and Melissa, were too distraught to speak publicly at the family’s Coal Point home on Friday.
Tributes pour in for young swimmer
AUSTRALIA’S swimming community has flooded social media with tributes for Coal Point teenager Jade Frith.
The hashtag #capsoutforjade had inspired hundreds of individual posts from across the nation on Friday.
Touching photographs of swimming caps and goggles laid by the water’s edge served as a reminder of Jade’s passion to lap the lanes.
Paralympic swimmer Maddi Elliot said she was Jade’s friend and called on the tight-knit community to post photographs “in honour of a lovely girl”.
A cascade of tributes quickly followed including those from friends, rival swimming clubs and Swimming NSW. Tributes had even poured in from overseas swim clubs.
Newcastle Olympian Thomas Fraser-Holmes wrote that Jade was “a great young kid” who had touched the lives of many.
Gold Coast’s Miami Swimming Club wrote that the tragic loss “is a loss to all of us”, while Mingara Aquatic on the Central Coast gathered the swim caps and arranged them as love hearts for Jade.
‘It needs to change, and it needs to change now’
THE death of Coal Point teenager Jade Frith was a “tragedy waiting to happen”, Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison said.
The talented 15-year-old swimmer died on Thursday, two days after she was struck by a Ford Laser as she crossed Hillsborough Road in Warners Bay just before 5pm.
Her death prompted an outpouring of grief from friends and family, as well as the wider swimming community.
But it’s also angered members of the community who say the road is notorious for being dangerous.
"My electorate office is inundated with complaints about this road, people take their lives into their hands every time they cross it."
- Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison
The teenager had just gotten off her bus north of the roundabout at the corner of Hillsborough Road and King Street in Warners Bay, and was crossing the road to attend swimming practice.
Warners Bay businesswoman Nicole Antony, who went to school with Jade's mother Melissa, was so moved by the tragedy that she set up a petition calling for the roundabout to be replaced with traffic lights.
By Friday afternoon, she had already attracted more than 1500 signatures and promised to remain campaigning until things changed.
“I am just so devastated for Jade's family and felt there needed to be something positive to come out of all this tragedy,” Ms Antony said.
“It needs to change, and it needs to change now.”
On Friday, Charlestown MP Jodie Harrison said she had been calling on the state government to release the results of a $4 million planning study it committed to before the election to widen the road to four lanes between Warners Bay and the Newcastle inner-city bypass.
“My electorate office is inundated with complaints about this road, people take their lives into their hands every time they cross it,” she said on Friday.
Ms Harrison says the results from the study were due in the middle of last year, but the government’s parliamentary secretary for the Hunter, Scot MacDonald, said it was extended in August or September to include Hillsborough Road and all state roads between Warners Bay and Charlestown, and would be complete by the end of the year.
“The investigations are considering options such as widening and providing additional lanes along Hillsborough Road, traffic lights at Chadwick and Crockett streets and upgrades to the Warners Bay and inner-city bypass roundabouts,” he said.
“Community consultation is expected to be carried out on the Lake Macquarie Traffic Study in the coming months and the draft Charlestown to Warners Bay corridor strategy is expected to be displayed for community feedback late this year.”
