Top schools give secrets of success

Almost a week after small armies of swimmers invaded the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool in Marpi to participate in the 13th Annual All Schools Swim Meet hosted by the Saipan Swim Club, some of the winning coaches and coordinators explained their secrets of success.

While the supporting cast from Whispering Palms School, Saipan International School, and Marianas Baptist Academy each had their own way of motivating their swimmers, they all had members of the SSC leading the way for their respective teams throughout the day.

Jeff Race has been a part of the program for WPS for roughly three years and said that some of his top swimmers have been involved with the SSC for a long time and they stood head and shoulders above the pack.

“They’re good swimmers and we just kind of build on that. Like Marina Kaku; she’s in second grade and she did just fabulously. And the Knecht brothers—R.J. and Lucas. They did great, and so did Victoria Chentsova and the Northen sisters [Opal and Ashley]. We get a lot of firsts and seconds from that and we try to get as many kids involved in the relays as we can,” he said.

Rachel Bandelin has been skippering the SIS team for the past three years with Betty Johnson and said that her team got a lot of strong performances from SSC and non-SSC members as well.

“There’s always Amanda Johnson who did a great job, but there were also Andrew Johnson and Jack Sharer who jumped in and did some of the harder events so that some of the novice swimmers could have a chance at doing the 50m freestyles and 50m backstrokes,” she said.

Bandelin also spoke of a family that entered four of five students into the meet, as just about everyone was keeping up with the Rafael, Emily, Angelo, and Shane Jones on Saturday.

“Rafael Jones stepped up and did the 400m freestyle which is a tough event for a kid his age [10] and then we had Misaki Cramer who is not on the swim team and he was awesome. He did the 200m free and the 50m fly and made it the whole way. He’s a strong little kid,” she said.

Stan Good is one of the heads of the MBA program and has been coaching for 12 years. He was one of the lucky ones because all six of his swimmers were accomplished swimmers and he didn’t even have to host a practice.

One thing that all of the schools have in common is that they have benefited from the hours and hard work put in by SSC coach Michael Stewart and all of the parents of the SSC.

“…a lot of the reasons why we win is because of Michael Stewart and because of the other coaches that are involved in the Saipan Swim Club and because of the program that Bill and Jeanie [Sakovich] built before he came here. I’m just riding on their coattails. I’ve only taken them up there for three times. I really don’t deserve much credit at all. The people who are regularly involved in the swim program and what they do with the kids prior to the time that we go up there,” said Race.

Bandelin echoed the same sentiments by saying that thanks to the SSC, her role involved assigning the events, a little bit of a warm up before hand, working on starts, and some drills.

“Basically we were just there to make sure that they made their events and to give them reminders and tips about what they were supposed to do and cheer them on. Pretty much every swimmer that participated is part of the SSC, so they’re out there working with Stewart who’s a really amazing coach. They get a lot of practice there,” she said.

As for the kids from MBA, they had the benefit of having SSC assistant coach Stan Good as their coordinator, and he said that his kids were ahead of the curve because they were able to pick and chose between the events amongst themselves.

“Since all the kids are or were part of the SSC, I did not have to do much. Each swimmer chose their events and did quite well. I was hoping for more non-swimmer participation not only from MBA, but also other schools,” said Good.

Trying to get more kids involved in the meets who aren’t already part of the SSC is not only unique to MBA, as Bandelin said that she is trying to get more of the children of SIS interested in swimming.

In order to do so she and Johnson are looking toward hosting a number of clinics with their older swimmers to try to get the youngster to transition from playing in the pool to competing in it.

“In the future we want to try to get more participants—people who don’t already swim all year with the swim club. We just want to get kids who want to come out and have fun. WPS team just has such power in their numbers that it’s hard for us to compete with fewer students. They make it part of their [physical education] curriculum, and so it’s kind of built in where we have way more students but a smaller faction of participants. So it’s probably wise of us to try and encourage it a little bit earlier on and get more kids involved,” said Bandelin.

One of the ways that SIS could find easy access to a pool is to build one on campus—a dream scenario for Bandelin.

“I would love to have a pool here. I would do all day swim lessons for every grade, every level,” she said.

While having a pool on school property is a sure way to generate interest in the sport, Race said that WPS has found success in getting most of the kids enrolled at the school to participate in the annual event. With only approximately 50 kids attending classes at WPS, they still had 40 swimmers in the meet by not only focusing on the crème de la crème.

“Every person who can swim 50m meters is asked to participate in the swim meet. We’re just getting maximum participation. It’s not just the kids who finish first and second who get us the points in the swim meet. It’s the same contribution from the kids who get fourth and fifth. It all just helps to add up the points, and it’s fun. The kids look forward to swimming for the most part every year. The other 10 or so are kids who have trouble getting 50m down the pool. We have a couple of non-swimmers who go with us to our swim practices and we have a couple of moms who are up there and work with them to make them more comfortable in the water, so it really is about getting the whole school involved. Even if they don’t participate in the swim meet they are still participating in the swimming program that we have at that time,” he said.

Fun was definitely part of the event, as Bandelin explained, and that may be the most important part for the kids as they look for new avenues of entertainment that aren’t television related.

“We had a lot of fun. They were positive and supportive of each other and I think that’s part of why we did so well too. We were really proud of all the energy and enthusiasm put forth by both the students and parents that made it a real fun day for everyone involved.”