The Barrhead Swim Club’s mission statement is creating swimmers for life and while it is still too early to tell to if that will happen, they are off to a strong start.
That is the word from assistant coach Gerald Jenkins, who spoke with the Barrhead Leader during a Nov. 19 practice.
In early November, about a dozen swimmers competed in their first event of the season, Penguin Sprint at MacEwan University in Edmonton.
“All of our swimmers improved their times from the last swim meet they competed in last year. For our new members, or those who are in their first year or are new to competitive swimming, they set a new personal best,” he said.
The swim has been invited to about half-a-dozen meets – about one a month, not including their own, which they will host in March.
Jenkins noted last season they often had troubles finding a meet to compete in, most notably because there are only so many competitions during the winter season and the majority of openings were reserved for teams that were previously on the circuit.
Last season was the club’s first season back after nearly a four-year hiatus resulting from the clousre of the old swimming pool.
“People [swim clubs] are starting to remember who we are,” he said.
And it would seem area swim clubs are not the only ones that have taken notice that the Barrhead Swim Club is back in operations.
Since its inception, the club has always had two competitive streams for those who would like to participate in swim meets and non-competitive.
However, due to the popularity of the non-competitive program, the club almost had to start to turn prospective members away.
It is a good problem to have, Jenkins said, adding it means the executive and coaches are on the right track in building the organization and the sport.
However,they hated turning away prospective members, so they switched a number of the stronger swimmers in the non-competitive program, which they relabelled to pre-competitive, to competitive.
“A lot of these are kids involved in many sports and activities, it must be hard to fit them all in, but they are here because they love swimming and that is great to see because that is what we [swim club] are all about: creating swimmers for life.”
