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D2 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, September 12, 2001 Photo by Glen Thiessen LEFT PHOTO: Craig Mortimer at the Dolphins new pool with swimmers Alex Routledge, Casey Hall, Andrew Bysic and Graham Toner. In the water with goggles is Summer Mortimer. RIGHT PHOTO: Emma O'Neull, 6, during her swim lesson with instructor Heather Dickison. Dolphins kick off fall with new pool By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR | raig Mortimer, the driving force behind the Oakville Dolphins swim club, has his dream job. And like m ost 'dreams' that come true, all it took was a lot o f drive and determination. This month, he was able to officially open the Oakville Dolphins' new swimming pool located at 407 Speers Road, units 8,9 and 10. W hile they've been open over the summer -- getting their feet wet, so to speak -- the real flood is expected to start this month with all their fall programs kicking off. The programs are designed to cover the entire spectrum of aquatics -- from toddlers taking their first plunge to elite swimmers who compete at Canada's world and Olympic trials. It's the form er group, however, that the pool is really designed for. The club's elite swimmers, in fact, will still continue to swim at the larger (and colder) town pools which measure 25 metres and at Appleby College which m easures 25 yards. The Dolphins pool, by com parison, is only 20 yards -- a perfect size, says Mortimer, for their grass roots programs. C Mortimer, 34, is married with three kids and is a lifelong Burlington resident. Swimming has always been his sport, which he competed in throughout his youth and into university at McMaster. "I swam com petitively in Burlington for 14 years," he said. "Our university relay team, I think we were ranked fourth in the country. I swam the nationals a couple o f times. "That's the level I got to." Many could swim faster than him; but not many had more passion for the sport. Throughout his swimming career -- even as a teenager -- he also doubled as a swim ming instructor. As soon as he got out of uni versity, he started coaching. He simply wasn't destined for nine-to-five, suit and tie. "When I came out o f university, I worked in the Board o f Education office for a couple o f months and I was coaching part time and then ju st got into it full time." Even when he started as head coach o f the Burlington Youth Aquatic Club in '93, howev er, his ultimate goal was to start his own club. "The nice thing about doing that, I mean obviously you have long term security which is very important. "And in doing that, the one nice thing the swimmers get, is they get the same coach over the course o f their entire swimming career. "W hat happens at a lot of swim teams is you get five, six coaches over an eight-year period, and say you get a good quality swim mer and they don't adjust to the new coach, they end up quitting. And they could have been a really strong swimmer. That was part of the reason for doing it." Having a product -- whether it be widgets or swimming lessons -- is all very fine, but is actually quite useless without a demand for the product. W hich is what brought the longtime Burlington resident into Oakville, despite the presence of an already respected swim club with many elite national level athletes. "I just looked at Oakville and saw the demand. It's a big sports community. They're actively involved in sports. From day one when we started, there was an amazing response. And it just continues to grow. "There's obviously the need for another program in the town." At the same time as M ortim er took on the head coaching duties at the Burlington Youth A quatic Club in '93 he also first got his feet wet in Oakville, kicking off a swimming lessons program under the banner of the Oakville Swim Academy. In '96, he took the big splash, quitting the Burlington club in order to concentrate on his fledgling Oakville swim program which now included a club program, all going under the banner of the Oakville Dolphins. "From '96 onwards, we've been offering two main services -- one being the lessons, the other being the swim team." It wasn't long afterwards they began toying with the ultimate commitment -- akin to hav ing a child in marriage -- and that was the birth of a ... pool. "The pool was something we w anted to do about four years ago. We knew we were going to come to a point where we would need our own facility because the problems we were running into with rentals is that your rental blocks are very limited and the end result is it's a bit of a patch work -- you know, an hour and a half here, an hour and a half there ... "I mean people call up, they want their kids in a program, you know between 4 and 6 p.m. and the only thing you can offer them is this day at 7:30. It just didn't meet what people were looking for. "So by opening up our own pool we could offer programs all day long, throughout the evenings, all day Saturday, and it gives people flexibility to choose what they're looking for." grams can develop a proper stroke and be technically good at it and then as a result walk away from it and be good solid swimmers." M ortim er is also hoping the pool will entice an increasing stream of adults back into the water. "The other thing we wanted to offer but couldn't because we didn't have the pool space in our rentals was an aqua fit program which we're going ahead with starting in September for adults at our pool." Also being offered will be parent-tot swims. Already wearing the hat of head instructor and head coach, opening a pool immediately made M ortim er a business owner, complete with all the rewards and headaches it entails. But it's a hat he has no qualms wearing. "It's fine. Because it's something going back to when I was younger, I've done differ ent businesses over the years. "Back in university, a friend and I, we had a big lawn m aintenance business. We had a number o f customers. I've done product devel opment. I've done different businesses over the years. "When I came into this one, I looked at it as offering a good quality service to the com munity." W hile the club may amicably house grass roots learn to swim classes alongside national calibre training sessions -- the pool could not. "We had to make that distinction -- how best the pool would be set up. "The bottom line was that for the younger kids -- there's a lot o f kids interested in the sport and learning how to swim -- a little bit smaller pool and a little bit o f a warmer pool sort of met their needs very easily. One of his highlights as a coach came in '96 "And then the older kids, because we have when he received a provincial coach o f the an existing set-up with pool rentals, they con year award. tinue to train at their various locations. His charges have included several national "So basically what our pool does, it's a ly ranked swimmers. teaching pool for our lessons and it's a pool "We had three boys from our Oakville club for our novice group on our swim team." (Craig Ross, Craig Lund and Doug Fleming) For the younger, novice swimmers, smaller qualify for the world championship trials. We can often be better, he reiterated. had two make Olympic trials (Ross and Lund) "You take a teenager on a swim team, they last year. swim a length of the pool and they do it in 14, "And we've got a lot o f really good young 15 strokes. "That same pool, if you put a seven or eight kids coming up that are 11, 12, 13 years old. ^ "They're getting ready to swim fast. And year old in it, they do 30 strokes to get there. sort of they're the next group coming along. It "They get sloppy on you part way through, will be their turn over the next few years." just because they naturally get tired. "So when you build a size-appropriate pool, To get in touch with the club phone 339the end result is the young up and coming 3000. swimmers and the kids in your lessons pro ST JOHN'S UNITED YOUNG Blades opener on Friday night The Oakville Blades wrapped up their final pre season tune-up in impres sive fashion, reaching the championship game of the annual pre-season tourna ment which they hosted on the weekend. The Blades, in the 10The Oakville Blades won this weekend tournament game 11-1 over Pittsburgh Jr. Penguins. They open the regular season Friday night at Ice Sports. Photo by Barrie Erskine team western conference of the provincial junior A hockey league, have their season and home opener this Friday, 7:45 p.m. at their Ice Sports Oakville facility against the Hamilton Kilty B 's. The following night, the Blades have their road opener in Buffalo, 8:15 p.m. Then it's a bit of a breather before a stretch of three games in four nights. It starts, Friday, Sept. 21, (See 'Blades' page D3) T h e c o n g re g a tio n a l{ fa m ily o ff S t J o h n '$ in v it e s y o u to it s 1 6 9 th A n n iv e rs a ry S e rv ic e Oakviih Awge&v GIRLS REP SOFTBALL TRYOUTS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 10:00 a.m. RECITAL Arlene Duncan, Guest Soloist Granddaughter of early St. John's sexton. Oakville participates in the Ontario Women's Premier Fastpitch League & The Peel-Halton League Sat. Sept. 15 Trafalgar Park Felan Ave. at Rebecca 3rd Line at Upper Middle Sun. Sept. 30 Glen Abbey Rec. Centre 5 p.m. 3 p.m. 1 p.m. 9 a.m. 11 a.m. _ JjWJwWjEj 10:30 a.m. WORSHIP Reverend James McKnight Sermon: The Healing Power of Christ Midget Bom '83, '84, '85 9 a.m. 11 a.m. 5 p.m. 3 p.m. 1 p.m. Bantam Bom '86, '87 11:30 a.m. HISTORY DISPLAYm Lusk Hail Tea, coffee, juice. Barbecue on the lawn Novice Bom '88, '89 Squirt Bom '90, '91 SERVING OAKVILLE SINCE 1832 - ALL WELCOME Mite Bom '92, '93 ON DUNN BETWEEN CHURCH AND RANDALL STREETS f Contact: Mark Johnson VP Rep. 905-274-4099 Visit our website at www.ogsa.on.ca ;