Long associated with Franklin High School’s (FHS) swimming program, coaches Dwain and Dina Picou also just completed another summer of FAST (Franklin Amateur Swim Team) coaching, as they have done each summer since 1997. The program is part of the Mountain Swim League (MSL) and July 13 found the Picous at Franklin’s Macon County Recreational Park swimming pool along with around 150 FAST swimmers. The event that day was the conference swim meet, which includes swimmers from three other area counties.
“[At the meet] we have Waynesville/Haywood County, Cherokee County, Sylva/Jackson County, Highlands, and us,” stated Dwain, “and we are the only ones without a year-round program.” That fact is due to Franklin not possessing an indoor pool for use by children, either at the high school or elsewhere. This challenge is similar to that of the FHS track program, which excels at the state level despite not yet having a home track on which to compete or host meets.
He also relayed that the summer swim program serves a few purposes, two of which are conditioning and fun at the pool. With kids from as young as 4 and up to 18 years of age, plenty of opportunity exists for instruction to go along with exercise. With the program beginning just after Memorial Day, the Picous have the better part of their summer break spent working with kids at the pool.
When asked about what is included in the FAST program, Dwain listed the traditional competitive strokes.
“We include butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle – and we’re even doing IM (Individual Medley) now.” IM entails a single swimmer executing all four strokes consecutively.
An entry fee is collected that parents and guardians must pay for kids to become involved in FAST, and ribbons and trophies to strive for are awarded throughout the summer, similar to a traditional middle or high school swimming season.
“We treat it like a summer league,” offered Dina. “There are lots of kids and we try to get them to learn how to swim, learn the strokes, etc.”
Even after roughly six weeks of long afternoons at the pool, the Picous were not quite finished with summer swimming involvement. Added Dina, “Next Saturday (July 20) is the All-Star meet in Jackson County for the kids who qualify and want to go. We are also taking some kids to the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) Junior Olympics later in the summer.”
The AAU was founded in 1888 to establish standards and uniformity in amateur sports. The Junior Olympics are considered the largest national multi-sport event for youth in the United States.
Looking forward positively, Dina added that Macon County Commissioner Danny Antoine is hoping to find a way to enclose the Macon County Recreational Park swimming pool. Doing so could go a long way to ensuring both the school year and summer swimming programs have an accessible space year-round in which to practice and compete.
Macon Middle School swim sign ups are Aug. 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the school.
