Aquanauts set to make waves

With the Canadian swim team wrapping up a decent showing at the Olympic Games in Beijing, aspiring local swimmers hoping to someday don the Canadian colours will hit the pool tomorrow for Aquanauts registration.
Registration will run from 5-7 p.m. tomorrow night at the Memorial Sportsplex, and organizer Dawnn Taylor said they will have a variety of programs for all skill levels or for those just looking for some exercise.
“We’re still going to have programs for those just starting out to ones for the big competitive guys but this year we’re going to have more of a team mentality,” Taylor stressed.
“The senior swimmers are going to take a couple hours a month to go help our assistant coaches with the younger, newer swimmers so that we are one big happy family working together,” she added. “We want everyone to go out and enjoy themselves and be as competitive as they want to be. We’ll certainly help push them to any heights they want to go to, but at the same time, maybe they just want to go out and be a recreational swimmer and that’s fine, too.”
Tuesday and Thursday nights will feature the masters program, where swim team members can come out and swim laps in a care-free environment, and can get technical instruction on their swim stroke and breathing techniques if they so choose.
The meet schedule isn’t officially released until the second week of September, but Taylor said they’d be doing many of the same from a year ago plus some new big ones.
“Our own meet here has been changed to January [from February], and we’re going to take on a Canada Cup meet in Etobicoke [Toronto], and in May we are all shooting out to Vancouver for another,” Taylor enthused.
“By May, I’d suspect we’ll have a good contingent of a half dozen or more going out to Vancouver, but for the Etobicoke meet it’s going to depend on how fast everybody recuperates from their summer,” she noted. “My swimmers have been calling and telling me that they’ve been working hard and are ready to hit the pool, so no couch potatoes here.”
Taylor expects to have much of her team from a year ago back in the pool, plus some old team members who hadn’t been involved last winter. Tristan Hutton won’t be back as head coach—meaning the Aquanauts will have a slightly new look behind the coaching reigns.
“We’re going to have an all-female [coaching] team coming on so there will be a lot of compassionate hugs along the way I’m sure,” Taylor laughed.
Taylor’s own son, Donovan, has recovered from an illness that stalled his swimming aspirations back in the spring, but has been back in the pool for a few weeks now and has barely skipped a beat, swimming at 85 percent of his best times already.