Trending
A swim team has forged yet another year of relationship with the City of Williamsport.
City Council recently approved a resolution for a memorandum of understanding between the City of Williamsport and WAVES Swim Team.
Mayor Derek Slaughter presented this resolution for the city's annual memorandum of understanding with the team, noting there was an increase per participant to $70 from $55.
Representatives from WAVES had over 100 swimmers as part of the team and using Memorial Park pool, he said.
"Things are going really well," he said he was told.
"We love to see the success of the Williamsport WAVES program," Council President Eric Beiter said.
Alysha Sides Greevy, at the time of the resolution presentation president of the team, soon to not be, spoke on behalf of the team.
"When my family and I joined the WAVES team 13 years ago the bank account was $35," she said. "And we had, I think, 20 kids on the team."
"We have steadily grown that program," she said. "We started at East End. We are now at Memorial as you know."
"We really want to thank the council for the support of keeping the pool going," she said.
The team is in a league called the Greater Susquehanna Valley Aquatics League. There are 12 teams in that league.
Nearly half of those teams do not have a pool, she said.
The region lost the Milton pool, which was filled in and a sad occurrence because it was a "wonderful facility," Sides Greevy said. Wellsboro has been down and looked at the pool project in the city and it is going to be another two years of fundraising to get their pool updated and finished, she added. That team is swimming at Mansfield University.
"We are worrying about kids not having things to do," she said, adding how things like being able to come to the swim team are a part of the solution. "These kids have known each other now for years and years," she said. "They go on and go into the high school program; they have a wonderful relationship with the coach at the high school.
"It really is such a wonderful community, great parents that are helping and it has been wonderful for our family."
Her daughter is coach for the fourth year in a row and Chad Greevy volunteer coaches, also. The reason the team had to raise fees is that two of the volunteer coaches are not on the team any more, as their kids have aged out and the team had to get more paid coaches, she noted.