Parents and supporters of the Estevan Golden Eels Swim Club have helped the city host provincial speed swimming championships before and they’re gong to do it again in a few weeks.
The Eels are finalizing preparations for the July 28 event, which the Eels have won for the last four years. They are confident they are going to ready for it.
“When our club, which is required to produce an entire event in one day, when we were tasked with getting ready to host the (Saskatchewan) Summer Games, that was a weeklong swim meet,” said Tania Andrist, chair of the provincial hosting committee. “We had days with swimming and all the events, and the special Olympics which was also days of events. There were officials which is logistical, to handle all those different athletes in all those different races. We have our swim meet of provincials being one day. We’re ready.”
The planning, infrastructure and layout is very similar to a regular swim meet, she said.
“But with provincials we’re under the gun to finish in one day,” Andrist said. “There’s no second chances and we need to hand out all the medals at the end of the day, and sometimes during the event to make sure the kids get their medals, which doesn’t always happen at a regular swim meet.”
Many of the clubs will be travelling for quite a bit leading into one big day. The day will culminate in a banquet for the handing out of season awards and dance.
“We want to ensure it’s a premier event, just as Estevan always does, and we know… we can host. We’re really just looking forward to doing the same and living up to the level that Estevan can usually put forward,” Andrist said. “People are always happy to be a part of something like that.”
To that end, they are going to be approaching businesses for sponsorship but their ask won’t be a very big one, but there are lots of opportunities for smaller sponsorship of events.
“The races themselves,” Andrist said. “You could sponsor a race. The 50 metre butterfly is sponsored by a certain company. There’s lots of fun opportunities.”
The club is healthy in terms of numbers but have had a lot of their older swimmers graduate or move on this year. They have a lot of time between now and then in terms of meets with the mini meet in early June for young swimmers and don’t have a full meet until June 16 in Humboldt.
“We’ve got lots of new and young swimmers coming up,” Andrist said. “Until we start the season, we won’t know how we compare.”
But for volunteers for this event and the actual hosting of provincials? This club is ready.
“There’s lots of veteran parents and veteran volunteers… The right people are in the right place because this is their moment. There are individuals that are in the right spot right now that will just take this event and run with it.”
