Jamie Mountain
There will be one less swimming option in Fort Frances for the foreseeable future.
The Fort Frances Aquanauts Swim Team (FFAST) has officially gone on a hiatus as they couldn’t find a new coach for the 2019/20 swim season.
Former head coach Dawnn Taylor said she stepped down from the position in February due to financial reasons.
“In February I moved over to Ray, Mn., so I’m over in Minnesota now, and for the past year prior to February I was still coaching with FFAST and it just got to the point where it was too difficult for me to keep coming back and forth financially,” she told the Times last Thursday.
“And being over there [in Fort Frances] for practises and such. As much as I hated it and the club was just not able to financially give me that extra to be able to compensate for my traveling so much, back and forth. I had to in February tell them that I wasn’t going to be able to coach for them any longer.”
Taylor hoped that her early notice would give FFAST enough time to find a new coach for the following season, which unfortunately didn’t happen.
“Evidently they have not done that, or haven’t been able to do that, so yeah . . . I didn’t even know what the outcome was until I did see a text I believe, yesterday or the day before, that was sent out to all the FFAST staff members that said they were not going to have a 2019-2020 season and that further discussions and decisions would be made about whether or not they were just gonna shut the whole thing down,” she noted.
Taylor said that the decision to step down as Aquanauts coach was heartbreaking for her and that her resignation letter that she read to FFAST was the hardest letter she ever had to write.
“I mean, I broke down numerous times to my swimmers because we were a big family,” she stressed.
“They were a big, big part of my life and as you know my son [Donovan] swam with FFAST for many, many years and you know because of FFAST, he ended up with scholarships and was in the NCAA and it’s just lots and lots of memories and lots of fun times and I got to deal with many really good swimmers and some really good kids and parents, too,” Taylor lauded.
“It was almost like a divorce and it was super, super tough. I feel bad because I left and they couldn’t get somebody in there [to coach], but unfortunately my hands were tied and I just couldn’t continue on, financially, doing it the way it was going.”
Taylor is now the head coach of the new Great Up North Swim Club in International Falls and stressed that former FFAST members are welcome to make the trip over the border and join up with it.
“I was approached by Evolve Fitness, which is a fitness company or the fitness group in International Falls, to say that they wanted to put in a swim program, if possible, because there was no swim program over here in International Falls,” she explained.
“And they felt that if I was able to come in, they would run it through their business and therefore it made it more financially feasible for me because it’s going through a business and not as a non-profit and it would still allow a swim club to be in our area.”
Taylor said the Great Up North Swim Club will give area youth the possibility of another option for swimming.
“So those of ours that were FFAST swimmers, if they want to come over to the Great Up North Swim Club in International Falls, we’re hoping that they will,” she said.
“I’ve talked to a bunch of my swimmers, we did a swim camp over here earlier this month, and I had four or five of my [FFAST] swimmers come over and they took swim camp with us and they spoke to me and said that they pretty much have decided that they are going to come over here.
“Those are at least the ones I know of that are going to come over and join up over here and I’m hoping that some of the others do too,” Taylor added.
“I would hate to have them lose their sport just because things didn’t happen over there [in Fort Frances].”
