The Humboldt Hammerheads are ready for another season.

After seven weeks of practice in the pool, the Humboldt Hammerheads Swim Team is ready to spring in to their competitive season.

On Saturday, members of the team are headed to Rosetown for the first swim meet of the season.

This season, there has been a rise in numbers, according to Head Coach Leisl Lefebvre.

"We have 58 registered swimmers. Some of them are very new - six and seven years old, so it's their first year with the club," she explained. "58 isn't our total competition number, but showing growth in the club is what we want every year. We want them to come back and continue to enjoy swimming with us."

Lefebvre says that the first meet of the year usually serves as a primer for the year.

"The expectation is to get back into the rhythm of competition. Re-establish those friendships, talk to people you haven't seen in the last eight months, meet some new people, and introduce new swimmers from our club to the competitive environment."

She added that half of the swim clubs that attend only have outdoor pools, and so they have around five more weeks of experience in the pool already.

Experience and development is something that Lefebvre has been able to document since she started coaching with the club over the last four years.

"From the very first year that I started, some of those six-year-olds who started in the junior session of swimming, they were learning to float and how to move their arms and legs correctly," she explained. "Now those swimmers are ten-years-old, they're in our senior level practice, they're consistently competing and have mastered two strokes and fine tuning two others."

Like any sport, the ability to become stronger and maintain better performance is through practice and Lefebvre says that there is one major buzzword that is continually a focus.

"The one that we stress every single day in practice, is streamlining. Swimming, from my perspective is all about moving forward in the water, but you want to move forward in the most efficient way possible."

This year will be extra active for some swimmers on the team.

Nine Hammerheads will be heading to Estevan for the Saskatchewan Summer Games, which will take place from July 24-30. Swimming will run from the 28th to 30th.

Lefebvre, who is also the coach for the Prairie Central team that will represent the Humboldt area, says they are taking a total of six other swimmers, including two who are familiar with the club.

"We also have two swimmers from Watrous, who we quite commonly refer to as our sister club," she noted. "They like to come up during May, when their pool isn't open and they participate in practice with us."

Later in the summer, Humboldt will host a swim meet on July 23, when the club welcomes swimmers from northern Saskatchewan for semi-finals, which will narrow down the field that heads to provincials.


You can hear more from Lefebvre below.