New family registration for O’Fallon Breakers set for April 22

The O’Fallon Breakers summer swim team will have open registration April 22 at the O’Fallon Township Building, located at 801 E. State St. in O’Fallon. Registration hours are from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

The Breakers, which compete in the 10-team Midwest Swim Conference, have offered a competitive summer swim team for the youth of O’Fallon for more than 30 years.

According to Rick Edwards, Breakers board president, while the kids do work hard, they have lots of fun along the way.

“The Breakers are a longstanding summer tradition in O’Fallon. Practices are early in the morning, Monday through Friday. We generally have meets Tuesday and Thursday nights at O’Fallon Pool in the park, beginning in early June. The season culminates with the Conference Meet in late July. And yes, the Breakers have been highly successful over the years, and the kids do work hard, but they have a blast as well. There’s something magical — for swimmers and parents — about those evening meets outdoors in the park. It’s just a great experience.”

Edward said that while some swimmers are highly competitive and eventually branch out to year-round club swimming and/or swim in high school, many others are just out here to have fun.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. “But understand the Breakers are a competitive team, meaning our purpose is not to teach kids how to swim. Kids have to be able to do the stokes appropriate for their age group, which is generally backstroke and freestyle for the youngest age groups and then all four strokes (back, free, breast and fly) generally age 9 and above.”

The focus is on getting better at those strokes and increasing endurance.

“And fortunately, we have an awesome coaching staff to lead the way, led by Kirsty Stooke, who swam competitively at SIU-Carbondale and is the lead assistant coach for the YOSI Seals Club team in Belleville as well,” Edwards said. “So it’s a great group of kids and solid coaching staff.”

Swimmer ages generally range from 7 to 18, with 18 being the maximum age for eligibility (as of June 1, 2017).

Other teams in the conference are located in Belleville, Highland, Trenton and Dupo.

This story was originally published April 17, 2017 at 7:59 AM with the headline "New family registration for O’Fallon Breakers set for April 22."