The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

With the snow still on the ground and the temperatures mimicking a mid-winter chill, Easter weekend seems like a far-off thought, let alone the summer swim season. Neither of them, however, are very far out.

Easter weekend brings back an annual tradition for the Big Sandy Barracuda swim team. The Swim Team Barbeque is held every year on the Saturday before Easter, this year being held on April 8th. This Fundraiser, put on by all the families and swimmers themselves, raises funds that are used for multiple expenses throughout the season which allows for the swim team to operate.

The Big Sandy Barracuda Swim team encompasses an age range of 5-year-olds through seniors in high school. On average, the team has had approximately 20-30 swimmers each year since the founding group of swimmers began Big Sandy’s own team in 2012.

Swimmers begin the season the first week after school gets out for the summer, culminating the season at the State Swim meet, which revolves through towns around the state of Montana, either the last weekend of July or first weekend in August. The swimmers practice four days a week at the Big Sandy Public Swimming pool, attending meets every weekend throughout the western swim division of Montana. Conrad, Chester, Columbia Falls and Hamilton are a few of the towns that are attended. Swimmers and their families stay throughout the two-day meets, either in an RV, tent camping or local hotel rooms, unless the town is within driving distance and the family chooses to commute to and from Big Sandy each day. The families tend to gather in the evenings during meet weekends, eating together, playing yard games, and generally building a community among the parents, swimmers and with other team members and families. Swimmers end up with friends throughout the state of Montana that they make during their summer swim season and develop relationships that last even after they have graduated and moved on in their adult lives.

While real friendships are built out of the pool, in the water there is a serious commitment to the competition and the goal of cutting time, perfecting a stroke, and winning the race. The younger swimmers, who are still learning the mechanics of the sport, are often seen lifting their heads out of the water to look over at their friend in the next lane and hoping to see them even just a second or two behind. The end of each race brings a sigh of relief from the winner and an immediate fist bump to the swimmers on either side, acknowledging that they were all in it together, but that ultimately the one with the fastest time had to win. Swim season 2022 brought an interesting challenge to two friends on the Big Sandy team, as they had both been dominating their age/gender groups at each meet and were losing the inner drive to push themselves harder. One was a swimmer in the girls 9-10 age group and the other a swimmer in the boys 9-10 age group, each with comparable times in the 100m freestyle but didn’t directly compete against each other, due to the gender separation. During the divisional swim meet in Hamilton, it was suggested that they should place a bet on who could beat the other’s race winning time, and the loser would buy the winner a Shirley Temple at one of the local restaurants in town. As the boys swim the 100m freestyle event first, the girl swimmer was able to go into her race knowing the boy swimmers’ final time and her goal to beat. She came up out of the water after touching the wall, looked up at the stopped clock with her first-place final time, and fist pumped into the sky, not gloating about her race win but that she knew she had blown his time out of the water, literally. They had their Shirley Temple “date” later that week.

The swim season isn’t possible without the fundraising done throughout the year by the swimmers and the families. Coaches need to be compensated for the long hours that are put into the kids during the season, meet fees need to be paid for each event swam by each swimmer, insurance needs to be purchased by the team, tents are purchased to have set up for the families and swimmers to sit under, etc. The annual barbecue, held immediately following the Rotary Easter egg hunt at the Big Sandy airport, has always been a large contributor of these funds, thanks to the generosity of all the people that come and grab a plate for lunch after attending the egg hunt or because they are out and about for the day.

Registration for the 2023 swim season will be available during the barbeque and board members and head coach Travis Baumann will be available to answer all questions.

The team will be serving pulled pork sandwiches, sides, desserts, and a drink for $9.00 per plate.

Date & Time- Saturday, April 8th, 11am until food is gone.

Location- Big Sandy Airport weather permitting, or the Jerry Martin Memorial Hall downtown Big Sandy if the egg hunt is canceled due to inclement weather.

Follow the team on the Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/BigSandyBarracudas

The team looks forward to seeing you at the annual fundraising barbeque this Saturday!