It was a banner year in the pool for the Humboldt Hammerheads, capped off by a strong showing at the provincial swimming championships in Melfort, July 27-28.
A total of 27 athletes took home 81 medals over that weekend, giving the Hammerheads a second place finish in the large club division, behind only the Regina Piranhas.
"This was probably our best year," said Deb Stumborg, the team's head coach. "The majority of our kids posted personal best times at provincials."
Stumborg has been coaching with the club since 1997 and has seen registration rise, fall, and now rise again. When she started, about 75 kids were registering; just a few years ago, that number was down to 23.
"All across the northern zone, that was the case," she said.
Stumborg originally got involved with the club almost by accident. All three of her kids started swimming in 1996 and by the next year she'd joined on as a coach.
"At first they hated it," she said with a laugh. "But by the next summer they were in love with the pool."
Even though Stumborg didn't have a personal background with swimming, there was no doubt for her that she wanted to get involved.
"It bugged me that the kids knew more about swimming than I did," she said with a smile.
The registration problems are also a thing of the past. This summer 74 swimmers registered, from five-year-olds who can barely stand in the shallow end to teenagers. Between May and August they spend as much as five days a week in the pool at the Uniplex, learning the four major strokes - freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke. Each day there is up to an hour of instruction in the pool.
After spending the first couple of years just getting comfortable in the water and learning the strokes, the kids begin their competitve races at the age of seven.
It is a demanding schedule, but one that produces results. Stumborg thinks there are at least a couple of kids in the program who are good enough to swim during the winter with a larger, year-round club.
If you need proof, just take a look at the pile of medals the Hammerheads brought back with them from Melfort.
