Swimmers, Take Your Marks! For nearly 50 years the Pinole Seals are teaching our kids how to swim As time goes on, and more television shows and video games are produced, our lives become fixated on mental stimulation leaving little to no room for physical activity. For many of us this has become our way of life, but for the kids it’s not too late! Especially if they live in or around Pinole, there’s an awesome swimming organization called the Pinole Seals Swim Club that can offer a positive, healthy outlet for your child. For 47 years the Pinole Seals Swim Club, a recreational competitive swim team, has been training kids ages 3-18 to compete in swim meets and better their skills, boosting both their health and confidence along the way. Plus, kids are grouped by skill level, not age, so they end up making friends that they’d otherwise never find common ground with. “We’re all one big family of swimmers,” says Marina Rossi, Board President for the Pinole Seals Swim Club. “The age range is wide open, they’re exposed to older kids, younger kids, male and female, and they’re encouraging and supporting each other! It’s a wonderful environment for the kids and for the families.” Rossi’s children both started with the Seals when they were 4 and 6 years old. By Matt Larson Her daughter has since worked her way up and was a junior coach this past year. The Pinole Seals have 4 paid coaches and around 10-12 junior volunteer coaches on their coaching staff. Last year they reached 125 swimmers in their club, which works out to having a coach for every 8 or 9 kids. There is a registration fee to join, but Rossi stresses that regular swim lessons can get expensive and usually only last a couple weeks. With the Pinole Seals, they practice every day from the middle of April to the second week in August. “We go the full summer,” said Rossi. “And so that competitive environment for them to really show improvement, see improvement for themselves, improving their best times—the investment really comes across when you track down how many hours of opportunity they get to be in the water.” Improving a skill like swimming takes time, and with the Pinole Seals they not only get better swim skills, but they get a whole new community of friends as well. Focusing on the four key strokes—freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke—the Seals are part of a league made up of 6 teams that participate in competitive meets, fun meets and some invitationals. They hold competitive
Contra Costa Marketplace - Jan 2016
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