The Carleton swim team is heading into their 30th season with high hopes, according to coach Michele Greb.
“There’s so much excitement right now,” Greb said. “These guys are good.”
The Carleton swim team is eager to “get back to its heights,” team manager Lynn Marshall said.
The varsity swim team has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Founded 1981, the team reached varsity status in 1985, led by Chris Pilon who won Best Male Swimmer at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championships.
Marshall said the team has seen some extraordinary talent pass through since then, such as Stefan Oliva and Erica Kotler, both winners of Carleton’s athlete of the year.
Don Burton stands alone as the only Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) medallist on the team, winning bronze in the 50-metre breaststroke in 1993.
The biggest highlight of the team’s history however, has to be their resilience, coming back after being stripped of varsity status not once, but twice.
In 1999, the swim team was on the cut list along with football, but the team was reinstated after vigorous campaigning. Again in 2007, the team was threatened to be cut, but after media coverage and a formal appeal, the swim team kept their varsity status.
Because of decreasing funding from Carleton Athletics, team management was taken over by ROC Swimming, a local swim club. While the team did keep their status, their finances could not keep up. Numbers dwindled, with the team comprising of only four to eight members since 2007.
Nevertheless, Marshall said there is plenty of reason for excitement this year, with 13 members and rising support.
“I’m very happy that we have a very enthusiastic coach this year, Michele [Greb],” Marshall said. “She’s already grown the team to its largest since 2007.”
“The best part of the team is the people I swim with and our coaching staff,” said Erin McRae, a freestyle swimmer on the varsity team. “We all look out for each other, and we have some very talented swimmers.”
The next step for the team is to tackle the funding issues currently ravaging the team.
“We had 36 people at the first tryout,” Greb said.
That number was cut down to 13, after it was revealed it cost $1,800 to compete for the team.
“Many prospective swimmers are unable to join the team due to inability to pay the required fee,” Marshall said.
Mohamed Aly, a member of the team, agreed, “It seems odd that the varsity team’s members are required to pay for pool time in their own university’s pool,” he said
Lynn Marshall said there is more pressure to do well this year.
“To get additional funding, either the team needs to place well at the OUA and CIS championships, which is very difficult with a small team, or do a significant amount of fundraising annually,” she said.
The team said they have a committed group with many ideas going forward. A GoFundMe account started this year has already raised $1,100 for the team.
“The support is there from the community, the alumni,” Greb said.
“Right now, the most important thing is to promote the team, create awareness, and make it accessible to all the students on campus who want to join,” McRae said.
