Throughout the Summer months the Chardon Sharks Swim Team provides opportunities for Geauga County youth to swim competitively against other Northeast Ohio community swim teams.
Throughout the Summer months the Chardon Sharks Swim Team provides opportunities for Geauga County youth to swim competitively against other Northeast Ohio community swim teams.
Swimming in the Suburban Swim League against teams from Euclid, Highland Heights, Mentor, Pinegate, South Euclid/Lyndhurst, Wickliffe, Willoughby and Willowick, the Sharks competed in a six week regular season on Saturday mornings.
The Sharks then completed their summer season on July 26 and 27 in the Suburban Swim League Championships at Lyndhurst Park Pool.
With an organization of over 100 competitive swimmers, the need for assistant coaches in addition to Head Coach Becca Marra is important.
Thus, serving as assistant coaches for the Sharks this summer are Chardon Hilltoppers swimmers, junior Maddy Cresho, and senior Janet Rockenberger.
Both former Sharks and current Hilltoppers swimmers, Cresho and Rockenberger are planning careers in education as teacher/coaches.
Still in high school, the opportunity provided to Cresho and Rockenberger by the Sharks organization is invaluable.
Cresho said that before beginning her career in coaching, she swam competitively for over 10 years. In fact, she started swimming for the Sharks as a youth swimmer.
However, this past year she began to reflect on her career goals and realized that this summer may be a good time to begin getting practical experience in coaching.
“This past year I really wanted to coach because it’s always been something I wanted to do,” said Cresho. “I’m interested in majoring in education when I go to college, so its kind of right down my alley. I’ve had a lot of fun. As a first year coach, it’s been a lot of new stuff. It was easy to pick up on though. It’s a very welcoming environment. A lot of the coaches really helped me (become more confident and comfortable) as the season went on. (Coaching) is a lot of fun. I really like it.”
Rockenberger, now in her second year as an assistant coach with the Sharks, said that she swam with the organization as a youth swimmer until 2019. She then began swimming for Great Waves Aquatics.
Since Rockenberger was training with Great Waves Aquatics, she decided that coaching would be a great way to remain involved with the Sharks.
“Coaching ended up being another great way to stay involved with the team,” Rockenberger said. “It’s also really helped me because I plan to be a teacher later on after high school.”
She added: “Being able to coach these kids with teaching them how to swim as well as just general skills like good sportsmanship has really helped me get good practice for (teaching and coaching). And it’s really made me feel more comfortable with the idea of myself being a teacher.”
Certainly, an important element of teaching and coaching that Cresho and Rockenberger have gained experience in with the Sharks is creating a positive motivational climate for their athletes.
In order to motivate and help their swimmers become confident this summer, Sharks coaches have used the motto “Fear the Fin” as a motivational saying for their athletes to utilize.
Cresho said that she has found the “Fear the Fin” mantra helpful for the swimmers as they have gotten more comfortable and confident throughout the season.
“I think (the mantra ‘Fear the Fin’) is good because a lot of the kids were pretty shy at the start of the season,” Cresho said. “As we’ve gone on, they’ve gotten a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident in their abilities. I think the ‘Fear the Fin’ mantra almost empowers them and helps them a lot to feel like the team is stronger.”
In addition to serving as coaches, Chardon Hilltoppers swimmers are also training with the Sharks this summer.
Jack Bennett, a junior swimmer and state qualifier for the Hilltoppers last season, said that he is enjoying swimming for the Sharks this summer.
“It’s really fun to put in the work,” said Bennett. “Sharks is kind of like a fun thing to do in the summer. You get to be with all your friends. I like it a lot.”
With coaches and swimmers from the Hilltoppers, the Sharks performed well at the Suburban Swim League Championships.
Overall, the Sharks took third place in Division II with 1,381 total points which included capturing 17 individual Suburban Swim League titles, and also finishing first in five relays.
Leading the way for the Sharks was Hilltoppers sophomore, Rylie Fisher.
She won three races in the Div. II, 13-15 age group, including the 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, and the 100m Breaststroke.
After her final individual race, Fisher talked about how happy she was to get her first Suburban Swim League Championship Title of the meet in the 100m Freestyle.
“(Winning) the 100 definitely felt good,” Fisher said. “I am not sure who was next to me, but I ended up catching up to her in the last 25. It felt really good. I thought maybe I had second, but when I (found out) I had first, I was really excited.”
In addition to Fisher, Hilltoppers junior Jack Bennett won the boys 16 and over Div. II 100m Butterfly.
