Emily Plihal
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Smoky River Manatees Swim Club will be hosting its annual general meeting at Ecole Heritage on March 6 at 6:30 p.m., welcoming all new children to come check out their club.
“As an association, we need to host this and it also gets the information out to all families interested in what our club is all about,” says Manatees president Monique Maisonneuve.
“Smoky River Manatees is a competitive swim club that fosters not only a love for swimming but a supportive community. Swimming is an individual sport but also a team sport where everyone encourages each other to do their personal bests.”
Maisonneuve says the team is hoping to gain new board members for the upcoming swim season and to help introduce their children to a great sport that will help in various avenues of their lives.
“Our swimmers have formed lifelong friendships as well as built life skills that can benefit them the rest of their lives,” Maisonneuve exclaims.
“I encourage kids to join swim club because it helps improve swimming skills, great for building discipline and goal setting. It also creates a sense of belonging to a team and building friendships within our club as well as other clubs.”
Maisonneuve says the Manatees accept swimmers ages six years and older, but in order for the swimmers to compete at swim meets they have to complete a swim meet readiness test. She says at the beginning some of the swimmers may not pass the test, but by the end of the season they have reached that level of swimming ability.
“Our club has always maintained around 30 swimmers each year and we are happy with that number,” she explains.
“Our coach last year was Charlize Beaudoin, with some of our older swimmers helping out with the younger group.”
Maisonneuve notes that swim practices vary based on each individual’s skill level and their age group.
“It’ll include a warmup, followed by technique drills which focuses on stroke mechanics, breathing, starts and turns,” she says.
“Interval training with specific stroke focuses (freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, or breast) workouts using kickboards.”
The Manatees swim at the Falher Swimming Pool, and they are intending on starting their swim season after the May long weekend.
“Manatees practice Monday to Thursday with the first group starting at 4:30 p.m. and our last group finishing at 7:30 p.m.,” she says.
“We encourage our swimmers to at least attend our swim meet that we cohost with Peace River at the end of June.”
Maisonneuve says that to attend Regional Swim Meet a swimmer has to attend at least one meet, but they can attend all nine meets throughout the season, held on Saturdays in different locations.
“Our fees range from $450 to $525,” Maisonneuve says. “We are a small but mighty club. This year, we sent 13 kids to compete at the provincial championships in Edmonton.”
If you would like more information about the Manatees, would like to join their dynamic board, or would like to sponsor their club, please reach out to Maisonneuve at smokyrivermanatees@gmail.com.
“We host two fun meets at the Falher pool during the season,” she notes. “One at the start of the season and one at the end. This way the kids can really see how much their times improve and then have a little fun with relays and free time at the end.”