The Shuswap Selkirks are helping swimmers evacuated from Fort McMurray continue their training.
Six members of the Fort McMurray Young Aquatic Club are sharing pool space with the Selkirks Swim Club.
Carla Young, the club’s coach, and her children Joelle and Mackenzie are staying with friends in Grindrod until it is safe to return to Fort McMurray, while another family with three children in the swim club was offered a place to stay on the same street in Grindrod as the Youngs.
The Young Aquatic Club has approximately 200 members, many of which have found other clubs to train with in the communities where they are staying. Most of the evacuated swimmers are in Calgary or Edmonton, said Young.
Young said she is sending practice routines to the evacuated swimmers who were unable to find other clubs in order to keep them competition ready.
“When these things happen you try to keep everything as normal as possible. We’d expect the same thing if it happened to us,” said Selkirks coach Barry Healy.
Young and Healy acknowledged the additional swimmers at the six-lane pool has put some strain on training schedules.
Healy said the Salmon Arm Sockeyes, the other local swim club, have also made accommodations in their training schedule, which has helped with the increased traffic.
Young said she has also been taking her swimmers to the Vernon pool to train as well.
The Young Aquatic Club swimmers will need all the practice they can get, as tryouts for the Alberta Summer Games are approaching. Young said two of her swimmers, Ben and Eleanor Deakin, will be trying out for a chance to swim at the games on June 12.
The Young Aquatic Club’s first competition together since the evacuation will be this weekend at the Silver Cup in Edmonton May 28 and 29.
“I’m looking forward to the energy of reuniting,” Young said.