Sun and Fun at Beach Club Swim Meets

12665

Twice a week in the summer, 12 year-old Kayla Kenny and her mother leave Brooklyn and drive an hour and a half to Sea Bright to compete on the Chapel Beach Club swim team.
“I like making the trip because when we get here it’s a lot of fun,” said Kayla, as she prepared to dive into the pool at a North Shore Swim League competition on Tuesday, as Chapel was taking cross-town rival Surfrider.
In the end Surfrider, which has twice as many swimmers as Chapel, won the meet at their home pool, but the kids competing on both teams conveyed a message beyond the final score.
“We have a really strong relationship between everyone on the team – like everyone just supports each other,”
Kayla said. “And even if we don’t win every time we’re really just here to have fun.”
Chapel Assistant Coach Emily Velcamp, who competed with the beach club from beginning at age 3 all the way through to age 17, said her message to the swimmers is about fun first and competition second.
“My biggest message to the kids would be to have fun with it,” Velcamp said. “Yes you’re still racing, yes you’re still competing, but the biggest thing that (the coaches) hope for is that ever y single kid is having fun in the water cheering for their other teammates.”
Surfrider swimmers shared similar excitement about hosting and competing in Tuesday’s swim meet.
“I like swimming because it’s fun and because … every single kid, we’re like a family almost,” said 14-year-old Surfrider swimmer Rachel Bailey. (Read how the rival teams joined in to honor the life of Molly Ann Richards, age 3, whose family belongs to the Surfrider Club.)
Bailey, who was slated for the freestyle stroke at the meet, said her technique for getting pumped up to race is to listen to the music of One Direction and hang out with friends.
Surfrider coaches Karen Dooley and Sherrie Cole said sometimes they take the team to the waterpark to get away from the competitiveness of the pool.
“Basically it’s the nucleus of our beach club,” said Surfrider Beach Club Owner Jim Lobiondo. “Its good for our business in so many ways, but … teaching the kids the right respect for others and the right camaraderie in every way in athletics, it’s so essential.”
Surfrider and Chapel take the pool every Tuesday and Thursday from July 16 until July 28 against the rest of the North Shore Swim League teams.
– By Dan Russo. Photos by Jaclyn Shugard