Our Coaches
Mark Thomas
Sprints, Hurdles & Relays
Level 4 High Performance Coach
Mark has been a coach at Frankston for over 20 years now specializing in Sprints, Hurdles and Relays. Marks aim as a coach is to help people achieve their dreams and become the best version of themselves as a person and as an athlete through working hard while having fun along the way. New Athletes from 12+ are always welcome to come along and see if they enjoy Athletics.
Email Mark
Peter Schuwalow
Middle, Long Distance & Cross Country
Level 3 Performance Coach
Peter has achieved success as a personal coach at the Olympics, Comm Games and World Championships. He has guided many junior and senior athletes to medals at State and National Championships. Peter coaches events from 800m to marathon, as well as cross country and road events. Over the years he has worked as the Distance Coach for the Victorian Institute of Sport, and held the position of Team Manager and Coach for numerous National Teams such as World University Games, International Ekiden Teams and World Half Marathon Champs. Peter's squad, Zenith Running, welcomes new junior and adult athletes. As a teacher and Head of Sport, Peter offers an excellent development program for junior athletes. His senior coaching highlight to date is coaching Frankston Athletic Club member Sarah Klein to 14th place in the marathon at the World Athletic Championships.
Email Peter
Paige Elvey
Hurdles, Sprints, Middle Distance & Relays
Level 2 Development Coach, currently completing the Level 3 Performance Coaching course
2024 Little Athletics Victoria Emerging Coach of the Year
Paige loves the social, physical and competitive aspect of the sport of athletics and is always keen to share it with those she coaches. Since the age of 9 she has been incredibly passionate about the sport and is still competing predominantly in the 400m hurdles & 400m as a Frankston senior athlete. Paige is looking forward to helping those she coaches (12+) achieve their individual aspirations.
Join in on the fun with The.Track.Squad!
Email Paige
Chloe Stevens
Horizontal Jumps, Sprints, Middle Distance & Hurdles
Australian Olympic Team Coach
Chloe has been a part of Frankston Athletics since the age of 8. Over the last 16 years she has coached a huge number of athletes in predominately Long Jump, Triple Jump, Sprints & Hurdles.
Chloe has coached athletes to States, Nationals and has also guided many Athletes to international events including World Juniors & World Championships!
She has also been an Australian LJ & TJ Coach at the World Champs in Budapest and the Paris Olympics!!
Email Chloe
Dion Finocchiaro
Long Distance, Recreational Running, Ultra (both road and track)
Accreditied Coach
Dion is a 2:19 marathon runner, who has run 6:30 for 100km (3:54km) and is the founder and head coach at Evolve Run Club which is based at Frankston. Dion has been running since 2011 and competed in many international races, world championships races over both roads and trails. He has been coaching since 2017 and also has a solid understanding of running injuries due to working as a Myotherapist for Evolve Myotherapy.
Evolve Run Club is a distance based recreational running club which provides a community for athletes to work hard at chasing their own goals. Training is at 6am on Tuesdays and Thursdays from Ballam Park. On Sundays, they do a group long run (usually 20km) from the Frankston area which anyone is welcome to come to. If you’d prefer to run less then that's totally fine too as they normally run an out and back course. Anyone can come all Sunday runs. The Tuesday and Thursday sessions are $10 but your first week is free so there is nothing to lose. Why not bring a friend.
What he loves about coaching is guiding his athletes to fitness and success through running while providing a fun, welcoming and encouraging community.
Email Dion
Dane Verwey
Middle Distance, Long Distance & Cross Country
Level 2 Advanced Recreational Running Coach
Dane is a passionate distance runner! He has been the coach of the Run Culture Owls since 2019.
Dane is a qualified full time physiotherapist and lover of all things running. He is currently the sole practitioner and practice owner of Run Therapy. He has been the team physiotherapist for multiple Australian Athletics teams including: Tokyo Paralympics 2021 and World XC 2015,2017,2019.