Stephen Hoelzley thinks a community winter swim club would be a big boost for swimmers in Powell River and he’s been working hard to make it happen.
Hoelzley is asking people who are interested in participating to attend a meeting at 7 pm on Thursday, September 27, in the Elm Room at Powell River Recreation Complex. The executive director of Swim BC will also attend the meeting to help launch the club off the ground.
“It’s a great opportunity for people who are into swimming competitively,” said Hoelzley.
Ninety per cent of high school students who receive full-ride swimming scholarships to University of BC or Simon Fraser University are members of a winter swim club, he said.
The winter club would be specifically developed to help train competitive swimmers, non-competitive swimmers and triathlon athletes who need to work on their swimming component.
Hoelzley’s passion for swimming came through his 16-year-old daughter who has been training to be a competitive swimmer.
“Because there isn’t a winter swim club, she has been swimming a winter swim club schedule on her own without a coach,” he said. “She’s been going swimming five days a week twice a day. It’s amazing.”
Hoelzley’s initiative is receiving support from the City of Powell River.
“It would be a great boost for Powell River,” said Bill Reid, director of parks, recreation and culture. “There may be a number of swimmers out there who have Olympic aspirations and this would be a great help for them.” He added that there are also a number of paralympic swimmers who could benefit from having more coaching available.
Reid said the pool may have to open an hour earlier to accommodate the club, but the city is willing to be flexible to help.
Hoelzley said that while he has found some volunteers to take club board roles, he still needs others with time and energy to help out. Once the organization is established they can then open registration and start to hire professional coaches. “They’ll set up competitions on [Vancouver] Island and in Vancouver,” he said.
While the rigorous training schedule will lend itself to swimmers training to participate in competitions, registration will also open up for Masters swimming, swimmers who are over 20 years old and want to participate in SwimBC sanctioned swim meets, as well as non-competitive swimmers.
“It’s going to be pretty rigorous training twice a day for five days a week,” he said. “But the younger kids could train once a day five days a week or if you’re not training competitively you could train three times a week,” he said. “It’s coached swimming so you have a coach fixing your stroke and helping with your development.”
Anyone interested in helping to get the swim club off the ground is asked to attend the Thursday meeting. For more information on the winter swim club readers can email Hoelzley at [email protected].
