If a swim club’s success is measured by how much its swimmers improved over the course of the season, then the Barrhead Swim Club’s season was a roaring success.
That is what both club president Janeen Millar and head coach Gerald Jenkins said after the club’s final in water event at the Barrhead Regional Aquatics Centre about their first season after a four-year hiatus.
On April 10 and 11, 52 swimmers took part in Swim Alberta’s annual Swim-A-Thon, a fundraising event for Swim Canada, Swim Alberta as well as local clubs.
The goal of each swimmer, besides the fundraising efforts, is to swim as many laps as they can in two hours.
“They have to swim for the entire two hours and not take a break even if all they are doing is floating on their back and kicking their legs they always have to be in motion,” Millar said, adding the goal of their more experienced swimmers is 200 lengths of the pool, the equivalent of five kilometres.
Something that many of the club’s swimmers accomplished or if they didn’t, they were very close to it.
“I think that tells you how far we have come since the start of the year. We had kids when they started with us as non-competitive kids they could make it the length of the pool and back again, but not keep going,” she said. “In the last two days, those kids are swimming 60 to a 100 laps. They are surprising themselves,” she said.
Jenkins added that there are five or six swimmers from the non-competitive group who have improved to the point where, if they choose to, they could move up to the competitive club.
“Most of them were from our most inexperienced group. To have them advance to the point where they are able to enter a competition and swim 120 to 140 laps that is just amazing,” he said.
For those enrolled in the competitive program, all their swimmers have seen similar improvements, with all of them finishing the season with new personal best times.
Both Millar and Jenkins believe there is more to the club than teaching technique and competition.
“We have always said we are building swimmers for life and that is exactly what we are doing,” Millar said.
Jenkins agreed, saying his goal is to instill a lifestyle where swimming becomes a part of their lives.
In addition to the improvements in the water, she said the club has made strides as an organization. After nearly four years in hiatus, the club applied for and received its society status and organized a fun mock meet for the first time in five years.
This year the club competed in about four swim meets although Jenkins said they would have liked to enter more. Due to the number of swim clubs in the province most meets are by invitation only. Next year they have already been invited to seven swim meets. The club is hoping to have Swim Alberta’s evaluation process completed sometime this summer.
Once this is complete Jenkins said Barrhead will be able to host its own swim meet.
Millar also admits there were some other hiccups this season.
“Certainly we have had some growing pains, but everyone from the board to our coaches, who are all volunteer have just done a fabulous job in getting the club off the ground again. “And we can’t thank all the people who worked so hard to get this pool built from the town and county councillors to the Agrena society. If it weren’t for them we would not be here today.”
