Young swimmers at BC

Bakersfield College grounds were festive over President’s Day weekend with 800 swimmers ages 6 – 18, their friends and families. 28 teams from all over California competing in over 100 events over the 4 days. I had the chance to walk through the event on that Saturday and observe the meet first-hand.

The meet has not been held in Bakersfield since 2009. It has been held in Clovis for the last few years and we were fortunate to bring it back to our campus.

There were 4 groups that really made this happen

1. Bakersfield Aquatics Club Parents

2. Bakersfield College facilities and staff especially:

* Sean James – was available at all times during the meet and helped run it

* Don Birdwell – helped Charlie get the pool up and ready

* Tarina Perry – helped before, during and after

* Steve Shafer – stepped up to meet electrical power needs and replaced lights

* Todd Coston – volunteered his time to make sure that all the IT stuff was good and ready to go, before and during the meet

* Charlie Pike – BC pool tech and former BC head swim coach and current BAC coach

* Bill Garrett – Fixed anything we discovered needed fixing ASAP ( and there were quite a few things)

3. Bakersfield Police Explorers – volunteered over 200 hours to help with security and parking.

4. Bakersfield College Swim Team and Students – Volunteered all weekend with timing and running at the meet

Tina Cummings, our Aquatics Director, said that:

“This meet gave us an opportunity to work together to bring attention to swimming in Bakersfield and to Bakersfield College. We sold out 4 area hotels and all those swimmers and their families had to eat and shop right here in Bakersfield all weekend.”

I was happy to see the crowd enjoying themselves, and proud of our work at the college.