Parents Kim Caffell, Adrian Caffell and Fred Doherty have become the team’s interim coaches, helped out by the other athletes’ parents.
The team — Lucas Hall, Ryan Stewart, Kara Brash, Bradley Caffell and Ryan Doherty — have qualified to compete in the Special Olympics New Zealand National Summer Games to be held in Hamilton in December.
Mrs Caffell is the team manager and attends most of the training sessions, so she knew how they worked before she stepped in.
Mr Caffell takes care of the statistics and weights.
"For both of us it means that we come twice a week," Mrs Caffell said.
They are looking for a new coach with powerlifting experience to take over.
Being a parent coach had its challenges.
The athletes responded better to an independent coach, so the parents tried to coach each other’s children rather than their own, Mr Caffell said.
Their son, Bradley Caffell, and teammate Stewart had been powerlifting for about 10 years.
Caffell’s main sport was skiing and he took up powerlifting to build muscle to protect his joints.
He and Stewart now competed in Special Olympics and mainstream competitions.
Mainstream competitions gave them more exposure to the sport, as there were not many Special Olympics events.
All five athletes competed in a few competitions each year.
"The last time they went to Special Olympics nationals they were the top team," Mr Caffell said.
Each of the athletes won about four medals, an impressive feat.
Mrs Caffell was hopeful a new coach could help them build on their progress.
"We know that we’ve had a bit of [an] unsettling time with losing our coach and re-establishing the training programme, but we’re hoping that we’ll get them back on track for bringing home at least one medal each next time.
"We know that if a new coach comes in there will most likely be some changes because everybody has their own way of doing things and we fully support that."
But getting them involved in new sports and enjoying it was the main goal, she said
"They want to be a team, they want to be powerlifting."
