Being back in their familiar digs has brought excitement for the KISU swim club.
After shutting down for an extreme makeover in March of 2010, KISU coach Tina Hoeben is very impressed with the revived Penticton Community Centre.
“It’s a fabulous facility,” said Hoeben. “All the natural light and lots of really important details they paid attention to. They did it right.”
Unfortunately KISU cannot begin practices until Sept. 12 as the pool shut down while some tiles are changed to indicate depth change. Going into the season, it’s a rebuilding year for the club that lost members when its swimming home was closed. They just didn’t have the space while training in the Summerland Orcas’ facility to accommodate everyone. They have 50 swimmers returning however, and Hoeben wants to see the club get to 150.
“We have a number of swimmers who are returning but they have lost a season,” she said.
For the swimmers who stuck with KISU, Hoeben has high hopes.
“The kids who stayed with us and trained hard had great results last year,” she said. “Really impressed with how well they did given our situation.”
Among those who she has high hopes for are Mathew Koster and Brian MacPhail. Hoeben feels Koster is ready to truly solidify his training and technique and have it all come together. He is at an age where she thinks there are going to be big improvements. Koster’s goals this season are to improve on his best times and perform well at events that will send him to provincials.
“I’m looking forward to getting in the new pool,” said Koster. “I’m looking forward to new competition being in a new age group.”
“Having seen how he has gotten into training hard, I think you need to learn how to train and he has really grasped that,” she said of Koster, who turns 14 in October.
She’s confident MacPhail will have a really solid season as he trained hard last year. It also doesn’t hurt that he earned great results near the end.
Along with Koster, MacPhail maintained his fitness over the summer and Hoeben is looking for him to come in very strong.
Hoeben said anyone interested in joining the club can do so by contacting her at 250-493-1161 or KISU administrator Anne Benn at 250-493-2533. People can also go to www.kisu.ca.
What also excites Hoeben about returning to the pool is hosting meets. KISU will host its first meet Oct. 14 to 16.