Making Waves

Isabelle Haase (left) and William Haase (right)
Photo by Suzanne Rose.

Making Waves

DCY Featured Swimmers

Two swimmers from Algoma earned recognition this week for exceptional meet performances and practice effort. Isabelle and William Haase attend St. Mary’s School in Algoma and travel to Sturgeon Bay three to four times per week to swim for the DCY program. Isabelle and William are IM specialists, meaning they are proficient in all four strokes. Both swimmers are close to state qualifying times in multiple events.

The entire family is a super addition to the team. Jane Haase, their mom, also volunteers as a team coach and is member of the Parent Advisory Committee. Both parents direct the DCY home meet concessions stand. The family was recognized last year as the 2014 YMCA Healthy Living Award recipients.

Notes from Coach Mike McHugh: Continuing our discussion from last week on age-group swimming, there seems to be a misconception about the YMCA programs and club sports. It is incorrect to call YMCA swimming a club sport. The YMCA accepts any swimmer, regardless of ability, as long as they can swim one length of freestyle and backstroke. Club teams, commonly called select or elite teams, only accept and search for the top or elite level of each particular sport. This differs greatly from the YMCA philosophy. Although we have exceptional swimmers, we do not exclude anyone from our programs. This might explain the great growth of our team, surpassing 130 swimmers this year. Another misconception about DCY swimming is that it is only for young swimmers. We have more than 40 swimmers in our senior group, with a very strong 13-14 age group, and a 15-18 boys group that was the best in the state last year as well as this year. An interesting fact about Sturgeon Bay High School swimming is that every team record holder and state qualifier for the past 20 years was a swimmer on the Door County YMCA swim team. Every swimmer receiving a swimming college scholarship swam on the DCY team also. These interesting facts should help you understand the scope of our program and explain why there is so much pride in maintaining our tradition of excellence.

Swim Term: Block(s) – The small diving platform(s) at the end of each lane used to dive from at the start of a race. Blocks come in a variety of shapes and styles, some permanent and some movable. Most have either a horizontal bar or a cutout to use as a handhold on the backstroke start.

Upcoming Meets

DCY Hawaiian Invitational, Sturgeon Bay: Jan. 10

Tittle Town Freeze, Green Bay: Jan. 16 & 17

SPDY Underdog Meet, Stevens Point: Jan. 24

Schroeder A+, Brown Deer: Jan. 30 & Feb. 1

Northern Lights Meet, Escanaba, Mich.: Jan. 31

For more information visit the DCY website, teamunify.com/Home.jsp?team=widcy.