IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich (WZMQ) – Swim season runs from October through mid-march. The YMCA coaches youth swimmers ages 6-18. The head coach, Aimee Tatangelo, said due to the long season, she expects athletes to trickle in from other sports. “Today I think we had about 50 swimmers, and that fluctuates throughout the season as volleyball ends, or different sports end. Having that long season, it’s nice that we can grab swimmers as they end other sports,” stated Tatangelo.
The team has about 5 coaches that help out on a rotating basis. The YMCA swim program teaches the 4 competitive strokes: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. The team boasts an 8th grade swimmer that is skilled at the difficult butterfly stroke.
The team competes throughout the Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin. Swimmers travel to cities like Marquette, Houghton, Green Bay, Manitowoc, and Milwaukee. Meets at the home pool are set for November and February, and the team is always looking for volunteers to help conduct meets and practices. Head coach Aimee Tatangelo says the team is always looking for volunteer timers to help with the various swim events during meets.
Endurance is a heavy focus for the team’s early season practices, and swimmers already have their sights set on state competition. State competition isn’t until March, but swimmers will get their feet wet with competitions starting as early as next week.
Tatangelo said the team experienced a lull when it lost a lot of swimmers during the pandemic, but this year the team’s getting back on track. “We have great coaches that help out, great kids, and families, and my favorite time of year is swim season. During covid, we lost a lot of swimmers just because there wasn’t really much competition. And so we’ve been working on building our team, and we partner with Delta,” she informed. Combined with Delta County’s YMCA, the swim team is almost at a hundred swimmers now. The team is bringing back two home meets this year to build the competition back up. The team plans to go to Marquette at least twice a year.
“Swim team is such a great lifelong sport. So you are learning fundamentals of swimming, but you also have the team camaraderie. It’s an individual sport, but you have the team to encourage you, and it is a YMCA sport, so they are learning all the values of being a good teammate and honest. Both my kids swim, so it’s really fun that I can watch them,” she added.
To find out how to get a child enrolled in the swim program, or to volunteer to help with practices and meets, call the YMCA at:
906-774-4076
For more information on YMCA programs, visit:
