Chatham Pool Sharks Land Sizeable Grant
Madison Broad, one of the Chatham Y Pool Sharks top swimmers, is one of many area athletes who will benefit from this grant – Contributed Photo
The organization held a media event Saturday, announcing the funding, which will be used for a number of new programs, equipment, and personnel, with the aim of helping local swimmers compete and train at the highest level.
“We have totally revamped our programming to get the swimmers excited with some new technology, while also addressing educational needs and some back to basics foundations for the parents,” says Dan Arbour, President of the Chatham Pool Sharks.
“We want to make sure that competitive swimming is here to stay in Chatham-Kent and so we are also investing in training more coaches and officials for the Chatham-Kent 2 swimming clubs.”
The 2-year grant will allow the Pool Sharks to focus on the age 6-12 swimmers in the Fundamentals and Learn-to-Train levels. The funding allows for the hiring of a coach dedicated for these swimmers and will address their unique training needs. Additionally the grant covers specialized equipment such as underwater ipads that will allow both swimmers and coaches to get a first-hand view of individual performance in the water; with the goal of improving technique.
Further, the grant will allow for more children to take part in competitive swimming through a spring Intersession program. The new 8-week session will be offered in Spring 2015 at a very low cost so that swimmers can sample competitive swimming and see if it’s a good fit for them. By offering it in April-May it will also allow athletes from other sports to cross train with the Sharks.
The Pool Sharks want to ensure that the kids are excited to swim, and also that parents feel they are prepared to support their children. The Provincial grant supports an educational component that allows for off-deck education for parents and athletes. The club will now be able to offer essential parent/athlete seminars on topics such as healthy eating, the importance of sleep and rest, supporting your swimmer, motivation and stress management.
The final area of focus will be on ensuring competitive swimming succession plans through investing in coaching certifications and training more swim officials. Swimming is a highly credentialed sport that required coaches to be well educated and certified in the sport, while swimming officials also need specialized training and certification to be on deck. Through this grant the goal is to train more coaches and officials through increased funding and further opportunities.
The Chatham Pool Sharks will continue to accept new swimmers throughout the year and free two-week trial sessions are always available. Anyone interested in wanting to become a volunteer coach or swim official is also encouraged to contact the club at cypsswimteam@gmail.com.
The Chatham Pool Sharks is a Division 2 Club and currently has nationally ranked swimmers on the team, as well as many provincial and regional-level qualifiers. This is in addition to the developmental programs offered for younger swimmers. For more information about the Chatham Pool Sharks visit www.chathamypoolsharks.com.