The Vance Aquatics Club Barracudas splash into their summer session this afternoon, beginning practice for the Durham Summer Swim League season.
Vance Aquatics is a year-round swimming club based at the Aycock Recreation Complex. The club is open to any child up to age 18 — boy or girl, Vance County resident or not.
The team will practice at Aycock on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 6 p.m. (some of the older swimmers continue until 6:30) through May 27. Team members may practice fewer than three days a week.
Starting May 31, the team will practice from 9 to 10:30 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. The more intense practice regimen will prepare the Barracudas for their five meets in Division III of the DSSL. One meet will be on a Saturday at 9 a.m.; the rest will be on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.
Vance Aquatics is a charter member of the DSSL. All of the other teams are in Durham County, so road meets typically involve a drive of 45 minutes to an hour.
Chris Leas, who assists his wife and fellow schoolteacher, Wendi, in coaching the Barracudas, said a secondary goal for the team is having more success in competition this summer.
“We want the kids to improve their technique and drop their times, as well as have fun,” he said., explaining the team’s main goal. In addition, “it would be nice to win a meet.”
Vance Aquatics is the smallest team in the 16-team league. Dual-meet victories are rare — one in the past two seasons — because of the numbers game.
The top three finishers in each race score points. Each age group — 6 and under, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-18 — holds separate races for boys and girls in four strokes — freestyle, back, breast and butterfly. Each swimmer may participate in three individual events. The Barracudas had about 30 swimmers at each meet last summer, so they had no one in some races. Other teams had twice as many swimmers.
Leas is optimistic about the coming season, which starts June 4 with a meet at Black Horse Run in northern Durham County. The first home meet is June 15 against Homestead Heights, and the season concludes with the championship meet at the University of North Carolina’s Koury Natatorium on July 8 and 9.
The star of the team is 16-year-old Karissa Thomas, who was dominant in dual meets last year. Leas said he also expects big things from Michael Busada, Josh Norton, Victor Norton and Brian Hicks.
“We should have a pretty good relay,” Leas said, speaking during a special training session on the butterfly stroke last week.
The Leases took over as the coaches last year, and Chris Leas said they have developed a good rapport with the team over the past year. They’ve become more comfortable as the coaches, and the routine they’ve developed is paying off through improvement in the pool.
A core group of 37 swimmers has practiced through the fall and winter, and Leas said several swimmers have made dramatic improvement the past few months. He said the team ideally would like to have 40 to 45 active swimmers when the DSSL season starts.
“It’s a good sport to get into,” Leas said. Swimming is low impact, and it’s both a team sport and an individual sport. And unlike a sport such as baseball, nobody rides the bench; everybody gets to play in every meet.
To join the team, children must be able to swim a 25-yard pool length without stopping, treading water or switching to doggy-paddling. If a child can complete a length doing backstroke as well as freestyle, so much the better.
“We hate to turn people away,” Leas said, “but we are not swimming lessons.”
Children interested in joining the Barracudas can attend any practice and give it a try. The earlier in the new session, the better, Leas said, but he expects several kids to join after school ends May 25.
The fee for the 13-week summer session breaks down to about $4.50 per practice, longtime team official Karen Copley said.
For more information, call club President Stephanie Rainey at 492-2095, or visit the Aycock pool during a practice.