Pincher Creek Voice: Pincher Creek's Dolphins shine at SASG and other meets

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Pincher Creek's Dolphins shine at SASG and other meets

Dolphin Ryanna Elliott
Most photos by Kim Jorgenson

Toni Lucas and Justine Jorgensen

2014 Southern Alberta Medals and Ceremonies and Swimming Chair Kim Jorgenson was very pleased with how the Games, held in Pincher Creek, unfolded. "The events ran very well for swimming, from everything I've heard, I think they went very well for everyone."

"It takes a lot of people to pull this off. For swimming alone we needed at least 60 volunteers."

Close to 4,000 medals were ordered and sorted for the games. A significant portion of those medals were for swimming events. "We had close to 900 medals for all the swimmers by the end of the meet. It was really, really rewarding."

Delaney Grose going first in the Family Relay with Adam and Brynn looking on

"Swimming in general is two days. It's a lot of events. We chose to age-group seed the kids rather than senior-seed (Having different age groups participate in one race."

"Age group seeding is much more interactive for the audience, because when you are seeing that race you can see who is going to win. You know who touches the wall is who touches the wall. You can see who is crossing the finish line, so to speak. The crowd really got into it. It was really neat to see. We don't do it in the regular season meets at all."

Benjamin Shenton

For Jorgenson, there were several highlights of the games. "One was to see the swimmers return as adults that had been with our club for a long time, Luke Barrios and Benjamin Shenton, whose names are on our record board. Our kids as Dolphins see the names, but don't know the person." Jorgenson said it gave some of the kids a real thrill to actually meet people who had set records in the sport. "It is really neat to see the people that came before."

Dolphins in the Family Relay

"The second thing is the Family Relay. There were 13 families that entered from all over, but there were six families that entered from Pincher Creek. So when I organized the family relay, the first six was all six Dolphin families. So the whole pool was full of Dolphin families. It was a long week and I was really tired, but when I saw that, it all went away, because it was so amazing to see that in the water."

The first six family relay teams were from the Dolphins: Sinnott, Grose, Alexander, Feser, Cooley, Shenton

Adam Grose

Benjamin Shenton

Brian Wright

Carter and Eliza Grose

Carter Grose and Megan Rainford lighting the SASG torch

Carter Grose and Yonne Feser

Carter Grose

Delaney and Adam Grose in the family relay

Jorgenson has been very involved with swim meets for many years, finding it is the little things that make her day go well. "I had changed into my suit to swim my relay, which I was a little trepidatious about, and I walked by a little girl from our club, Esther. She looked up at me and said, 'You're swimming?!' I told her I didn't know if I was going to swim well, but I was going to try." Jorgenson said that Esther responded with 'I'm going to cheer you on, because you always cheer me.' "So there were lots of those little things. Those little things have always been special for me. It's never the whole big picture, it's all the little parts of it that combine to make it work out."

The swimmers and families camping out behind the pool was something that Jorgenson enjoyed seeing. "It was a huge tent city, and it didn't matter what club you were from, what MD you were from, it was kind of back to what it used to be. Everybody camped together, everybody played with each other, families helped families, we were just all together."

The SASG occurred in the middle of the Dophins' regular season. Last weekend, a weekend after the SASG, the Dolpins were at the Crowsnest Pass meet (stay tuned for more about that), and this weekend they will be at the Fort Macleod meet. "The August long weekend is Nanton and then into Regionals and Provincials following that," Jorgenson explained.

Games Chair Brian Wright dives in feet first to avoid elimination after a false start

Jorgenson is currently the President of the Dolphins Swim Club, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011. She talked about how she became involved with the club 15 years ago. "Brian Wright was Chair of the SASG, but at the time, he was the President of the Dolphins." Jorgenson was new to the area and had seen an advertisement for the Dolphins Annual General Meeting, and decided to attend. "Then it came time for nominations for various different positions, and Brian turned and looked at me and said 'You came to the meeting, you get a job'. I was Director of Communications."

Her daughter Hannah was five years old at the time. Hannah started to swim, and once she could get ribbons, prizes and medals she literally dove in to excel at the sport.

"I don't think there are very many families that Dolphins haven't touched in Pincher Creek, in some way," said Jorgenson. "Whether they swam, or have a family member, or someone else they know was involved."

"Currently this year we have about 68 (members)," Jorgenson explained. "And we range anywhere between 65 to 75 - we've had a steady amount every year in those numbers." She's very proud of the Dolphins members. "The kids... I know I keep using the same words, they do amazing but they do. Kelly Cooley is our records board guy, and not that he's complaining but they're keeping him busy! This is the job he thought way back when would be 'Oh I'll be records chair', and every week he's having to change the board because they just do really well."

She's also an unabashed fan of swimming, as one might expect, labelling it as a life-long skill. "I think it's something that you begin as a child and you grow into as a teenager and then you yourself do it as an adult and then your families and it just continues on in a cycle. I think that it's a great sport for the whole family, its a great sport for your health, its an all-round muscle toner. Sometimes we've had kids that join swimming because they want to play hockey better. It turns out they love swimming - does help them play hockey better, but turns out they're just really really good at swimming."

" So I think it's just a sport that helps you in everything you do."

Eliza and Carter Grose in the Family Relay

Eliza Grose

Emerson Sinnott starting her leg of the Family Relay

Emerson Sinnott

Emily Milligan, Hannah Nazarek, Caitlin Verhagen, and Britta Sinnott

When asked if Pincher Creek was up to the challenge of assisting Lethbridge with the Canada Winter Games if Lethbridge wins its bid, Jorgenson was affirmative in her response. "We have a great community. I think, that as happened with this, a month ago we only had 150 volunteers, and on the day it opened we had the 400 we needed. So I think the same thing will happen. If we get that here the money will be raised, people will volunteer, and it will be an amazing event like it always is whenever a community is called on to do something."

Family Relay

Dolphins is a competitive swim club. Athletes must attend at least one out of the eight meets during the season if they want to compete at regionals or provincials. This year the SASG counted as a meet, as it is an ASAA sanctioned event. Jorgensen explained that members do not have to compete at meets but there are times "once parents go to one meet they find that it's maybe not what they were thinking, it's actually quite fun."

She went on to say that, although the competitive side is important, it is not the main objective. "We try to foster a team atmosphere. It's never about an "I", ever. Everyone cheers everyone else on." In order to achieve the goal of everyone supporting one another, the club has employed a mentor program. To bridge the gap between the older kids and the younger kids, at each meet a younger swimmer and an older swimmer are paired up - they become swimming buddies for the day. "The swimming buddy's job is to get them around to their races, make sure they get where they need to be,and after the race get them to the coach (all the swimmers go to the coach after and talk about their race) and so it's really fostered, more so, a relationship between all the team members, because the little kids are in awe of this swimmer that is helping me and the older swimmers get that nice mentor feeling."

Gabi Feller, Jordan, Hannah Nazarek, Kim Jorgenson

Hannah Nazarek

Kullen Molaro

Lincoln Grandoni

Luke Barrios, John Rottger, Brian Wright, Benjamin Shenton

Madison and Lincoln Grandoni at opening ceremonies

Ryan Plante, Liam Hinch, Calvin Cooley

Sinnotts at Family Relay

William Johnson Junior

Yoenne and Isis Feser

Zakary Nazarek, Kim Jorgenson, Kullen Molaro, and Hannah Nazarek, family medal winners at SASG

In all of Jorgenson's experience with swimming, she has seen how people love the sport. In particular, she mentioned the referees of Pincher Creek's region. "None of them have kids in swimming anymore. Their kids have all grown up - they're grandparents now, these referees. Yet they still continue to referee, every single weekend, every year. They come from Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, and they still come every weekend to referee meets at their own cost. We don't pay our referees. They volunteer. And they still continue to do that this many years later. And so obviously, for them, for that to happen, you have to really love the sport. So somewhere along the line, it has to have fostered something that you care enough about that you're gonna continue to do it no matter what."

Photos - Dolphins at Taber meet:

Note: click here for the story about the Dolphins at Taber