There’s no more feeling like a fish out of water for members of the Okotoks Mavericks.
“They love it (being back),” said Okotoks Mavericks head coach Todd Melton on the long layoff amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve had discussions on goal setting before because it’s based a lot on competitions. That drives certain swimmers.
“You’ve just got to find new things to work on and be excited about, especially those kids who are really geared towards competition. You’ve got to think outside the box quite a bit.”
The club returned to the Riley Minue Pool, with the first practice on Sept. 14, with COVID-19 guidelines in place, but they’ve made great efforts to make it as close to a normal resumption of activities as possible for the swimmers.
“We’re fortunate our facility hasn’t restricted too much,” the coach added. “Our goal this year was to get all groups back swimming and we managed to do that. That being said we have a restrictive schedule, we’re not in as long for practices. So everybody at all levels kind of got cut back with time.
“And there’s you know, we all have to wear a mask, the kids have to show up with their bathing suits on so it’s not ideal, but compared to even Alberta and the rest of the country, we’re fairing pretty well.”
Melton, who credited assistant coach Emma Hesterman for her logistical acumen in finding schedule fits for all of the groups that make up the Mavericks, said the club is pursuing more of a holistic approach to get swimmers of all levels back in the swing of things.
Melton said the swim club numbers are down slightly this year. While expecting to lose more swimmers to the cohort system which effectively only allows an athlete to be part of one sport cohort, he said there’s only been one or two individuals who’ve opted for another activity over swimming.
Competitions for the time being are off the table, for the duration of 2020, so right now it’s about keeping the athletes motivated and developing technique in training.
Some of those measures include virtual swim meets where swimmers post their times and compare them with other swim teams.
For Melton, it’s somewhat of a blessing in disguise to have this time to dedicate strictly to training.
“I have a young group this year so I’m not too upset about this because I’m going to focus on technique whereas before there was always a focus on technique, but you still have to get that work done because you have a competition to look forward to,” Melton said. “This takes the stress off competition so I can focus more on the technical aspects.
“That’s my passion – the technical aspect – so I don’t see this as a bad thing. The group, as a club, the staff you just try to remain as positive as you can. There’s a silver lining in everything.
“We’re just going to play it week by week, or day by day because you don’t know what’s going on, but things will ever be changing so what we’re doing right now is not necessarily what we’re going to be doing even in a month.”
For more information go to okotoksmavericks.com.
