Swim team comes first at Memorial Park meet

The Electrifying Eels experienced the thrill of competition as a team Saturday against swimmers from Pelham and Dunnville.

About 30 youngsters, aged five to 16, took part in the meet at Memorial Park. The team has a full complement of 40 swimmers, but not all could attend, says Adriana Vizzari, mother of four kids who are part of the team.

The swimmers will compete against other municipalities in four different pools over four weeks, and then in a final regional meet mid-August, she explains. They were in Dunnville last week, and will swim in Grimsby and Lincoln over the next two weeks.

This year the regionals are at Brock University on Aug. 12, and next year will be hosted by the NOTL team. “We’ll have to be ready for that,” says Vizzari.

“The Electrifying Eels had a great Saturday,” she adds. “The team won our meet and there were quite a few first-place ribbons taken home.”

It was a great experience for the kids, she says, “so positive.”

Practices, Vizzari explains, are held at both the St. Davids and Memorial pools on alternate days. Members of the swim team can attend all of the practices, or if transportation is a problem, they just go to the practices they  can get to.

The coaches, Ella Carrique and Sierra Kelly, are former lifeguards at the town pools, and former swim team members, says Vizzari — to her, that’s one of the reasons local pools are so important.

“It’s awesome to see this go full circle for the swimmers,” she says. “These kids are our future lifeguards,” as well as instructors and coaches, and they are creating an important community that teaches kids to swim, passing on a love of swimming, and most importantly, contributing to water safety.

In addition to the swim team, swimming lessons are also full, she says, and the summer camp run by the town brings bus loads of kids to Memorial Pool as part of their program.

The team held a fundraiser Saturday with a concession stand at the meet. “Caps are the first order of business,” Vizzari says, as one of the basics — swim caps help the kids feel like a member of the team, and also help identify swimmers according to their team. Other teams, she adds, have caps — so far, the NOTL kids are the only ones without them.

In past years, “there were caps and T-shirts or sweaters for the swim team, but this year there just hasn’t been any money. I think it would cost about $200 for the caps,” she says. “We’re hoping to receive some donations.”

The swim team offers an accessible sport, with little cost, she adds. “It helps kids learn to swim, and to learn their strokes. They don’t have to be a racer — they just have to be able to swim 25 metres.”

Living in Niagara-on-the-Lake, swimming is a skill that’s essential, “and not all homes have swimming pools,” she says.

Memorial Pool is looking good, with a new high diving board — as a town councillor, Vizzari asked for it to be in the town budget, and other councillors agreed — and St. Davids has been painted and given a face-lift. It is being well-used, as are the tennis courts beside the pool, she says. And every day she sees kids using the path that connects the large Cannary Park subdivision to the park and pool.

As for the pool’s future, last year’s St. Davids Pool Fundraising committee, to which she belongs, ended with a mandate for the committee to look into either repairing or replacing the pool, but it hasn’t met since the October election. She hopes it will soon. “I would like to see a facility in St. Davids that supports the community. These pools are both essential. And this pool is so accessible, and really well-used, especially on the hot days we’ve had. Plus kids can meet their friends there, and kids from other schools. This pool is very community-driven, and it’s so important we continue to offer it.”