At Saturday’s annual regional swim meet, the St. Albert Sailfish had more to celebrate than winning top points that day.
Along with a men and women’s combined score of 1418.5, the team also celebrated its 50th anniversary with enough cake to feed more than 400 swimmers and their families.
“Every year is virtually better than the year before, it’s unbelievable,” said Sailfish head coach Glenn Wilson.
The North Edmonton Swim Club came in second with 980 points and the Stony Plain Sharks placed third with 824 points. In total 11 swim clubs competed throughout the day, which Wilson says is the largest meet the province has had this summer.
Volunteer and past-president of the club Werner Biegler said it was fitting that the celebratory day would draw out the biggest crowd. He said every year the swim clubs in the region keep growing.
“The region itself is like a team and very friendly,” he said.
Biegler started volunteering at the club eight years ago. Reminiscing on the past, he said the club has always focused on forming close relationships. While swimmers work to improve individual times, they also work strongly as a team.
50 years of family
The sense of unity is why swimmer Amelie Sherwin has stayed with the club for 11 years. She said her favourite part of the meet on Saturday was the energy that came with celebrating the team'50th anniversary.
As to why she chose to join Sailfish over other swim clubs, she said at one point she had considered transferring out.
“Then I thought about all my coaches and all my friends that support me,” explained the 15-year-old. “Just how well everyone works together on the team, I didn’t want to lose that.”
Sitting on a bench next to a pool filled with loud, splashing swimmers, it’s easy to see what he means. As Sailfish competitors cut through the water, team members not racing sit near the edge cheering in support.
Around the pool every volunteer on deck is sporting a Sailfish shirt.
According to Biegler, one reason the team works so well together is the head coach. In an interview after the race, Wilson is regularly greeted by people passing by. One person yelled out, ‘this guy is the best coach!’ as he walked past.
Part of what makes him stand out is his approach to the sport: skill first and score second. Instead of pushing for faster times, Wilson will spend an entire practice going over one skill.
Once it’s time to compete, Wilson has each player consult him immediately before racing and immediately after to talk about their skills.
“The kids lose this very prevalent anxiety that kids have in sport-culture now, where parents live their lives precariously through their kids, which is unfortunate. Here, since parents understand they’re working towards a skill set instead of a time, the times will come.”
Wilson said that parents tend to back down once they know their kids are focusing on improving. Once the skill is mastered, he said the times quickly follow.
That was evident in Saturday’s meet when the Sailfish team ended up taking first place in the meet.
One highlight for Wilson was watching the parents step up and participate. In previous years they would have watched from the sidelines, but this year they changed into swim suits and stood at the starting blocks for the relay races.
“I get a whole family that wants to come back and celebrate the 50 years. They want to be here and they want to jump in the cold pool and do a relay together as a family. Wow, how does that happen? We have more and more adults participating now than ever before.”
