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Competitive Aquatics Director Teresa Fightmaster

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The swimming program at the Licking County Family YMCA is making quite a ‘splash’ throughout the community.

Competitive Aquatics Director Teresa Fightmaster says the program continues to grow. 

“Last year, our program had 88 swimmers. This year, we are up to 147 swimmers. It probably has to do with the ‘Michael Phelps Effect’ after the Olympics. We’ve got a great group of kids. Our program has changed from three levels to eight levels. We have a coaching staff of five coaches. We’ve gone to four meets so far, and our kids have done an incredible job.”

Fightmaster says the kids aren’t just from Licking County. 

“They are from all over. We’ve got kids from Reynoldsburg, Pickerington, Zanesville, Tri-County, Sheridan and a lot of different high schools are represented. So, it’s not only Licking County, we’ve got the other surrounding communities as well, which is pretty exciting.”

Fightmaster says nine weeks into the swimming season, the team has already been very successful. 

“The first meet that we went to, our kids broke four records. We won our invitational and we had three highpoint winners during that time. Through the four meets that we’ve had, we’ve broken 48 team records. We’re off to a great start. We have some young kids who had never competed in a meet and they’ve had lifetime bests. They enjoy it, they come to practice and they smile. It’s all about having fun. If the kids have fun, they want to come to practice and that’s a good thing.”

Fightmaster is actually a Newark native and graduated from Newark High School...and she brings a lot of experience to the table. 

“During that time, I was pretty fortunate. I had a pretty good swimming career. I won state two years in a row in breaststroke and I was fortunate enough to go to The Ohio State University on a full ride. During those years, the women’s program won four Big Ten titles, I went to NCAA’s, I was an All-American and Big Ten Champion.”

Fightmaster says she learned a lot during her successful career and hopes to pass that on to her team. 

“I had a lot of fun, I met a lot of great people, I learned a lot from my coaches and it was just a great experience. For me to come back and hopefully gain the excitement, have the kids enjoy the sport of swimming and accomplish even more than I did would be wonderful...that would be icing on the cake.”

Fightmaster adds that the YMCA offers an excellent swimming lessons program. 

“We meet them, we evaluate them and we place them in the appropriate level program. There are adult lessons and children lessons. We want to make it progressive, so once they complete their lessons program, they’ll want to be on the swim team hopefully. So, during that time as well, you are evaluated and within the eight levels of our structure, we’ll find the right program or the right group level for that athlete.”

For more information, call the Licking County Family YMCA at 345-9622.