Participants in the 2017 Wrangell Swim Camp gather together for a group photo following Saturday's concluding meet. At the back, members of Wrangell Swim Club had helped the learning swimmers compete in the meet's different events. The two-week camp and meet were part of Parks and Recreation's summer youth programming, held in association with the club.
A two-week clinic for burgeoning swimmers concluded last weekend with a meet on Saturday.
The summer swim camp was put on jointly by Wrangell Swim Club and Parks and Recreation, and included about 16 youths. Including kids from as young as five to 12 years old, the hour-a-day sessions were meant to help build intermediate swimming skills for relatively new learners.
"The bulk of our kids were around nine or 12," said Jamie Roberts, who along with Bruce McQueen coaches the club.
Over the course of ten session, the students were introduced to lanes, improved on their kicking and arm coordination, worked on breathing, alignment and other skills.
"It's basically learning how to do front crawl," said Roberts. "The goal was hopefully that by the end of the two weeks all of the kids could swim one length of the pool, maybe two."
"First we had to build up their ability to swim to the other end by the first week," she explained. "We had some kids who didn't want to go into the deep end. They were fearful of it. So we had some of those challenges to overcome."
By August 19, they were ready to try what was for most their first meet. Eleven events were chosen, including some fun partner events. Members of the swim club also participated, helping fill out some of the more advanced strokes in the medley races and assisting with the meet. The preceding year had been their first one competitively, and by now they had plenty of experience with meets to share.
Afterward ribbons were presented and the kids treated to a pizza party.
"It was a lot of fun. I was really impressed by how far some of those kids had come, just in an hour a day for two weeks," said Roberts. "We worked them pretty hard. They seemed to really enjoy themselves, they came back every day."
Her hope is that these new swimmers might take an interest in continuing the sport, either with Wrangell Swim Club or on their own. Starting its fourth year now on September 5, the club has 34 members returning for the new season. Of the swim camp's participants, Roberts suspected 10 might be joining the club.
They will start training for their first meet, the "November Rain" event to be held in Petersburg.
"This is definitely going to be our biggest year," the coach said.
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