Varsity swimming to return to Acadia in 2009

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Acadia Director of Varsity Athletics Brian Heaney says “all systems are go” for the return of varsity men’s and women’s swimming to Acadia in the fall of 2009.

“I’m really excited about bringing swimming back to Acadia,” Heaney says. “The issue for me was simple. First of all, swimming is a lifetime sport in which both men and women can participate, and in equal numbers. Second, we already have a pool that is being used by everyone but an Acadia varsity swim team, which made no sense to me.”

Swimming was last a varsity sport at Acadia in the 1993-1994 academic year. Despite the lack of a varsity swim program since that time, Heaney noted, “we have an active swim community that surrounds our university.”

This includes the Wolfville Tritons, a nationally recognized youth developmental swim team that utilizes the Acadia pool, and an Acadia Masters swim club that currently operates in partnership with the Tritons.

Heaney confirmed that Tritons head coach Chris Stone has been approached to assume the head coaching duties for the Acadia team while also continuing as the Tritons’ head coach and he has agreed to accept the challenge.

“By reimplementing swimming as a varsity sport,” Heaney said, “it provides a pinnacle program for local youngsters to aspire to.” As well, “as we begin to graduate student-athletes in swimming, they in turn can make a beneficial impact in terms of coaching, support and administration of swim programs all across the province.”

Expects a lot of energy and support

Heaney said reinstating varsity swimming for both genders is part of his dream of having the athletic department serve as a driver in helping solve Acadia’s ongoing problem of decreasing student enrollment.

“Our goal is to have a men’s and women’s teams of 25 swimmers each,” he said. This, in turn, “should reintroduce Acadia as an academic institution and a place to complete post-secondary studies for a host of students who otherwise never would have come here.

“It respectfully re-establishes a program on behalf of all those who made a commitment to Acadia swimming during their own undergraduate years. I fully expect there to be a lot of energy and active support from these swimming alumni.”

Heaney confirmed that Acadia’s intention to reinstate men’s and women’s varsity swimming has been communicated to Atlantic University Sport and will be ‘rubber-stamped’ at the AUS annual general meeting in the spring.

The current goal is to have the program in place by the fall of 2009 and, to that end, Stone “will be recruiting student-athletes to Acadia with the intention of competing

for Acadia starting at that time.”

Heaney said the Acadia and Tritons programs “will be totally separate, other than having the same head coach, at least for the time being.”

At the same time, “unlimited co-operation will be the order of the day. We recognize the Tritons are a quality developmental swim club and we will be looking for ideas that will be mutually beneficial.”

Speaking last week, Stone said he is “very excited about the return of varsity swimming to Acadia. I feel it’s a great move for athletics at Acadia as well as for swimming in Wolfville, Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada.”

He is “very confident I will be able to fulfil the duties of both roles very well,” and in a way that will be beneficial to both programs. “While I will definitely be busy, I don’t foresee any major issues on the horizon.”

Recruitment to the varsity program will be Stone’s primary focus in the coming months, but he believes his established reputation in Atlantic Canada swimming circles “will help me spread the word that Acadia is serious about developing a swim program that is known for its performance,” both regionally and nationally.