A season to be extra proud of following two years outside of the pool

The Whitecourt Blue Dolphins Summer Swim Team recently had a fantastic showing at their Regional B Championships held at the Kinsmen Sports Centre in downtown Edmonton. Head Coach Alice Boll said the team did very well this season. “We had over eighty swimmers on the team this year. The most we’ve had is just under 100, so we were nearly at our maximum for the season.”

Boll said that to accommodate the big group of swimmers, they had to shuffle some of the groups to make room for the younger ones that signed up. “We had a lot of swimmers that were under ten this year. We had eight different training groups. As the season went on, we readjusted so that we made sure that every swimmer was challenged appropriately for the levels they reached.”

With last weekend’s regionals, the 2022 season is done for most of the team, though twenty moved onto provincials. “We took 33 swimmers to regionals, and that is based on how many swimmers signed up. Every swimmer is allowed to go to regionals and compete there for a chance to compete at provincials.”

Boll explained that the influx of new swimmers that joined Whitecourt Blue Dolphins made for strong relay teams and that seeing the success each one achieved as they pushed past their personal bests was a joy to watch. “Seeing the difference between the beginning of the season and now is such a huge transformation. This year it seems even more so because you have swimmers that are twelve years old now that haven’t swum since they were nine, and there is a big difference between a nine-year-old and a twelve-year-old.”

With restrictions keeping kids out of the pool for much of the last two years, Boll said they weren’t sure what to expect this season. “We were so excited that this season turned out as well as it did because missing out for the last two years. It’s been sad with pools being closed. There was very little training. We were really happy to be back in the pool and racing again. The swimmers who had past training and competed before were so happy to get back.”

Boll said she was very impressed with how quickly swimmers caught up following the pause in training and expressed their dedication was spot on. “We learned four different strokes, and each stroke has so many different elements not just in the swimming but in the turns and the starts and the finishes and all the technical details that go into each stroke. It really is a lot to learn, especially in the first year. To see them doing this well after the break is very rewarding.”

Lots of medals were won at regionals, including a gold by Kyle Schatz in a race he didn’t even train for. “Right at the very end of the season, one of our twelve-year-old boys, his butterfly, turned out so beautiful. We watched him practice and said we should have him do it in regionals. He had never competed in it all season and had just learned butterfly this year, and he wasn’t ready right up until the regional meet. He didn’t even have a time in it yet. We put him in, and he ended up getting first place in his 50-butterfly at regionals, and now he’s going to provincials for it. It came together right at the last minute. It’s exciting to see things like that happen.”

Those who won first or second place in their regional races automatically qualified for provincials. “We also have a wildcard process that allows a few more swimmers to qualify if they were fastest in the province but not necessarily fastest in their region.” Looking forward to the ASSA Provincial Championship, Boll said she is excited to see what the team can do. Fourteen swimmers will race in 39 individual events, with eight relay events on top of that. “It might be the most we’ve ever sent for relay teams.”

Looking back on how the season went, Boll said that each swimmer got faster and progressed. “We love that kids get the chance to win medals and get on the podium, but every swimmer has seen improvements. In talking with the parents, they are excited to see that progress and those huge changes in their kids. That’s what we are here for. We are here for the kids, to compete and have fun with it, and that keeps me back coaching even though my kids are grown. When the swimmers come into the wall, and it’s a super close touch, and it goes in their favour. As a coach, I’m literally jumping up and down.”