Members of the Estevan Golden Eels summer swim club have held their first practices of what they hope will be a banner year for the club.
The Eels first practice was on Monday afternoon at the RM of Estevan Aquatic Centre. Their 63 swimmers this year range in age from six to 17.
Cassidy Reich, who coaches the Eels with her sister Abbie, said the club always has at least 60 swimmers, making it the largest summer swimming club in the province.
Outside of the six-year-olds, the Eels will be sending kids to compete at meets this summer, since the minimum age to swim at a meet is seven.
Cassidy Reich said the coaches are trying to determine the strengths of their swimmers.
“We want the ones who need help with certain strokes to be grouped together, and those who need help with certain skills to be grouped together,” she said. “It might take a couple of days before we figure it out.”
But she is happy with what she has seen so far. The youngest swimmers are impressive already.
The club has a lot of swimmers in the 11- and 12-year-old age group. A lot of swimmers from last year’s club moved up from the nine and 10 age division.
Swimmers will practise from Monday to Friday at the RM of Estevan Aquatic Centre. A mini meet will happen on June 14, giving the younger swimmers a chance to experience what happens during a meet.
Their first two competitive meets will be in June, and then there will be several events in July. The Eels will host the southern Saskatchewan meet on July 29, and top finishers from that competition will advance to provincials in Watrous the following weekend.
Reich said the Eels have a lot of kids returning from last year’s team that won the provincial title. She believes their success can be attributed to the number of swimmers who turn out to compete in meets each weekend.
“That really helps to add up the points,” said Reich.
Reich is confident the Eels will have another strong team this year, and she expects the coaches will know how the club measures up with others in the province after the first couple of meets.
