Young swimmers learn life skills
One of the sessions at the leadership conference
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association (CIASA) recently hosted a leadership conference for 40 of Cayman’s top youth swimmers, which focused on life-skill development and recognising how sports and, in particular, swimming, affect that development.
Cayman Islands representative team members attended the four-day conference which was led by visiting coaches Maureen Isaac (Mo-Jo) and Terry Ganley, both of whom are highly qualified professionals, and well known and respected in the international swimming community.
To be invited to be part of the representative team, swimmers have to obtain two or more internationally recognised time standards and be between nine and 17 years old.
Isaac is the founding member of The Summit for Sports Leadership, a group which consists of highly successful women in athletics who strive to educate and empower female coaches and young women. She has more than 21 years of coaching experience at all levels of swimming through to university, and this has included a number of Olympians.
Ganley is the senior associate head coach of the University of Minnesota women’s swimming and diving team. She has more than 27 years of experience working at many different levels.
Each session of the conference was held twice, to gear the presentation towards two different age groups – 11 and under, and 12 and over. On the last day, the sessions were divided by gender.
Swimmer Corey Westerborg had this to say about the conference: “Coach Terry and Coach Mo-Jo were very knowledgeable and gave their talks in a way that I could easily understand. I found the sessions very interesting and not boring at all as the coaches included some games, which made it fun.
“I learned about teamwork and leadership and think it was a good idea by CIASA to put on this conference for us.”
Bailey Weathers, Cayman Islands technical director, who helped to organise the conference, said, “CIASA is incredibly fortunate to have the calibre of Ms Isaac and Ms Ganley running the leadership conference for our young swimmers. The experience that these coaches bring to the table is incredible and we are so fortunate that our swimmers are able to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
“We are also very grateful to MaplesFS, who have sponsored this event. Whilst our children are taking part in swimming, the non-water skills that they learn go a long way in developing the adult that they ultimately will be.”
MaplesFS CEO Scott Somerville explained why the firm was involved. “MaplesFS is honoured to support CIASA in their efforts to educate, promote and empower young swimmers in the Cayman Islands through this effective programme.
“We are pleased to assist the organisation in raising awareness of the importance and benefit of individual and team sports for Cayman’s youth.”
