The St. Albert Sailfish Swim Club has won regional championships for the last six years in a row. But as they approach their annual home swim meet on July 15th and 16th, hosted at Fountain Park Recreation Centre, head coach Glenn Wilson cautions that this is a re-building year.
“It’s a good year,” assures Wilson. “It’s always a good year. It’s just how you measure good. Good is quite a nebulous term, but when it comes to the season, we’re getting personal bests. In some ways, it’s unbelievable. It’s a way better season than ever before. In other ways – as far as winning swim meets – it’s a little more challenging.
“Swimming is one of those things where you just don’t know,” continues Wilson. “But you focus on personal bests. I mean, in life, you focus on doing your best. Here, you do your best swim possible. We don’t pursue a personal best every swim meet, but we want to make sure the kids are gearing up towards a personal best at, let’s say, our home meet or regional championships and you’re training towards that. I’m not looking at winning regional championships, I’m looking at creating swimmers that do personal bests.”
With swimmers five to 17 years old, board president Werner Biegler expects to breech the 300 mark when it comes to participants at this year’s meet, due to the growing popularity of the sport. According to Biegler, the St. Albert Sailfish swim meet is usually one of the most well attended meets in a region of ten clubs, which includes Banff, Jasper, Whitecourt, Hinton and more.
“Our meet has a good reputation of being one of the best run meets,” says Wilson. “People like to come to this one. All the coaches are treated quite well. We get fast times. Our pool is very fast, so if they are going to get season best times, this is where they do it.”
Both Wilson and Biegler are quick to credit parent volunteers and St. Albert’s volunteer spirit for the success of the event. Parents are not only there to cheer on their kids, but also fill positions such as stroke and turn judges, referees, chaperones and more.
Of course, there’s also the home team advantage to the upcoming meet.
“We get to swim in our own pool, our own walls, our own starting blocks – the kids always feel most comfortable and probably do better that way,” notes Wilson.
It’s also a dress rehearsal for regionals, as they too will be hosted in St. Albert this year – a plus that only happens about once every five or six years.
Wilson emphasizes that at meets, every kid contributes. Even though swimming may be perceived as an individual sport, the St. Albert Sailfish very much focus on creating a team atmosphere.
“The culture and environment that Glenn has created in the team is beyond anything,” says Biegler. “Because all the coaches that he mentors are all ex-swimmers. So they’ve grown up from the club, they’ve swam, they’ve competed, they see how he coaches, so now they’re coaches. It’s a just this wonderful model – how to develop these youth coaches.
“They care,” he continues, “and they’ve been through the system and they want to give back. They all go to the meets and they’re very collegial. It’s a very collegial team. They always hang out together.”
Still, the core of Wilson’s coaching philosophy is simple: showing kids that hard work pays off.
“The whole thing is about learning to improve,” finishes Wilson, “and the parts of life that create that improvement, so self-discipline, showing up for practice –80% of success is just showing up. If that’s the only thing we teach – you know, what you put in is what you get out. You don’t get that in everything. You don’t get that in all sports. We celebrate each kid for their abilities.”
