For more than 40 years, Colony Pool has had its very own swim team. A lot of hard work from parents and others is what makes the team rewarding for parents and children alike.
Take Terry McGovern, for example. She has two daughters who have been on the team since they were eight.
"We have a really great group of coaches who are very dedicated to the team," she said. "They are great role models to my children."
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Parent representatives Carol and Brian Keating are in charge of getting enough people in place to run the events. They make schedules, fundraise and have preseason meetings in advance of the summer season.
Parent volunteers serve as referees, race starters, scorekeepers, 50/50 raffle money collectors and bake sale coordinators. It's all a volunteer effort.
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Carol and Brian Keating have been parent representatives for nine years, and Carol says next year may be her last.
"I've watched these kids grow up," Carol Keating says.
There are eight meets during the season. Colony swims against other teams in South Plainfield, East Brunswick, Cranford, Hillsborough and Middlesex. The 60 kids on the team meet for one hour five times a week.
There are 25 swimmers on the developmental team, which meets three times a week for three weeks. Coaches for that team teach children how to perform the different strokes used in the swim meets. After that three week period, if a child chooses, he or she can enter a real race with the swim team at the last meet.
At the end of the season, each coach takes the time to say something special about each individual child. Coaches also choose what the label will be on each trophy—no two trophies awarded are the same.
Cacky Keating became a member of the Colony swim team when she was six. Now 19, she swims competitively for Fairfield University.
But not as many younger kids have been joining the team lately. There need to be more if the team is to continue on the way it has in the past.
"We used to have a million eight and unders, and now they are all nine to twelve years old," says Keating.
On Wednesday, Colony swimmers competed against East Brunswick at home, eventually falling to their opponents. (Photos from the meet are at right, as are photos from Colony swim teams of previous years.)
But former head coach Shelly Prebenda was at the event cheering her children on.
"I call [my coaching years] the golden years," said Prebenda. "All six of my children swam on the Colony Team. It was a family thing and it was very fun."
Do you have additional older photos of the Colony swim team action? Send them in to zach@patch.com.
