When head coach Kelly Kaye was first with the Squamish Pirates swim team, the club was a bit smaller.
She estimates that there used to be around 35 to 40 children taking part. Now, there are approximately 80 on the team for the upcoming season, which starts with a home meet this Sunday.
“It’s going really well,” she said.
“It’s really exciting. There’s a lot of energy.”
Kaye competed with the team before first becoming a coach in 2000, eventually becaming head coach, and she stayed with the Pirates until 2005. She later became coach of the Chena Swim Club in North Vancouver before returning to the Pirates last year.
Even with the large number now, Kaye says the swimmers have bonded.
“The kids are tight and well-connected. It reminds me like of a really good family,” she said.
The young swimmers can take part in the non-competitive fall and winter season to improve technique, stay fit and make friends, typically swimming a couple of times a week. They ended with a mini meet in April and even had the chance to train with one of Canada’s top young swimmers, James Dergousoff, earlier this year.
Summer season is when the competitions take place and the practice time picks up in the pool. “All of the kids have the opportunity to swim each day,” Kaye said.
The growing numbers for the club can create a logistical challenge on the coaching end.
“It’s doubled in size,” she said. “The pool time and space that we have is the same, so there’s obviously some creative juggling that needs to happen in order to have the opportunity to have everyone compete.”
The younger team members swim at different times than the older kids. The team is made up of children six to 17 years old, and probably half are in the eight-to-10 age range.
The swimmers focus on learning the broad range of strokes in competitive swimming.
“We still pretty much train them on all the strokes,” Kaye said.
Specializing becomes more common for kids starting around age 13 or 14 in competitive winter clubs. There, swimmers compete at longer distances, while in summer clubs like the Pirates, they tend to swim sprint distances.
With the club’s growing ranks, Kaye has some help from Katie Coombs working as senior assistant. She swam with the Squamish Titans masters club and will be one of the older coaches for the Pirates.
“This is her first year coaching,” Kaye said.
Kaye and Coombs are joined by senior coach Wyatt Pederson, as well as Alex Jevons and Oli Jarrett. Providing extra help with be coaching assistants Mikayla Lorimer, Brandon Cheal and Avery Masselink.
For the upcoming home meet, Kaye has been working on team spirit, setting team standards and establishing a mission statement.
“I’ve been doing a lot of team-oriented preparation,” Kaye said. “What makes for a good swim meet is a team that’s connected, so I’m working on building that.”
It also means going over fundamentals, such as focusing the competitors, especially the youngest ones, on swimming without getting disqualified.
The Pirates compete primarily against clubs from the Lower Mainland.
This Sunday’s meet will start at 8 a.m. at Brennan Park pool. Along with the Pirates, it will feature the North Shore Winter Club Marlins, North Vancouver Cruisers, Vancouver Super Sharks, Port Moody Aquarians and Burnaby Barracuda, with 320 swimmers expected to take part.
Following this weekend’s tournament, the Squamish team will have meets throughout the Lower Mainland.
Squamish will host the regional meet on Aug. 6 and 7, which will be followed by the provincials in Coquitlam Aug. 18 to 21.
