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Swim club boast second successful season

All said, the 2018-2019 Barrhead Swim Club winter season has been a success, although it hasn’t been without its challenges.
A small army of volunteers were required to keep track of the swimmers laps.
A small army of volunteers were required to keep track of the swimmers laps.

All said, the 2018-2019 Barrhead Swim Club winter season has been a success, although it hasn’t been without its challenges.

“We are still going through some growing pains, but all things considered our swimmers and we are as a club making good progress,” said club president Janeen Millar.

This season marks the club’s second year of operation since they were forced to take a four-year hiatus after the old aquatic centre was closed in February 2014.

The Barrhead Leader spoke to Millar Feb. 25 on the second day of the club’s annual Swim-A-Thon.

The event, which is mandatory for Swim Alberta sanctioned clubs, sees participants attempt to swim 200 laps, or five kilometres, in two hours.

“It is looking pretty good. We should have a number of our members achieve that goal today,” she said, noting many of club’s more experienced swimmers were taking part in the final day of the Swim-A-Thon.

Due to the number of swimmers, the event was held over two days, the first being Feb. 21, when three swimmers from the club’s non-competitive program completed 200 laps. All totalled, 49 members took part completing, 6,756 lengths of the pool for a total of 168.9 kilometres.

In addition to being an endurance event, it is also a fundraiser for the club as well as its sanctioning bodies, Swim Alberta and Swim Canada.

The club receives about 90 per cent of the funds while Swim Alberta and Swim Canada split the remainder.

“We ask all our swimmers fundraise at least $100 by asking for pledges in the community,” Millar said. “The money goes towards subsidizing the pool rental and buying various equipment.”

As for how the season has gone to date, she said, by and large, it has gone well.

“The kids are all improving and we are building a culture of swimming, but I wouldn’t say we haven’t had our hiccups,” she said.

One of them is that they haven’t been able to compete in the number of swim meets they originally planned.

Last year, being their first year back on the circuit, they had difficulty finding events they could compete in due to the limited number of spots and the fact they were no longer well known.

However, this year it look like things were starting to turn around, as they had been invited to about half a dozen meets.

Unfortunately, the club was only able to go to two events, because many swim meets were either cancelled or delayed.

Millar said the main reason is they left the circuit is that Swim Alberta changed its requirements and many of the clubs had difficulty meeting them.

It is also part of the reason why the club isn’t able to officially host its own meet.

“We were hoping to have our own sanctioned meet where we could invite other clubs, but we are still getting our feet underneath us,” she said.

Millar added the club is also in the process of looking for a new head coach. Gerald Jenkins, the club’s first head coach, took a lesser role this year due to other commitments, handing over the reins to Charlene Assenheimer, but this year she announced she will be retiring from coaching after close to 20 years.

“Overall, it’s been a good year, our swimmers are having fun and progressing, and we are still growing, so you really can’t ask more than that,” Millar said.


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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