Displaced Swimmers

Marianopolis Master’s Swim Team Faces Displacement.
First published in Westmount Life Magazine

The members of the Marianopolis Master’s swim team are busy this month. In addition to their schedules as professionals, parents and athletes, they are currently canvassing every pool in the Montreal area, trying to find a new home. No one knows where the quarter-century old swim team will end up, but one thing is for certain: June third the doors of Marianopolis college close and the building and its sports complex will be sold. As of press time, there are 25 team members all suited up with no place to swim.

The Marianopolis Master’s swim team was founded in the early eighties. Originally it was housed at the downtown YMCA. When the new Marianopolis complex went up with its beautiful state-of-the-art pool, the swim team moved in. They’ve been there for the last 20 years.

The membership consists of 30-70 year old people; a mix of men and women. Professionals, businesspeople, and a diverse mix of individuals make up a team with a little of everything. Though the nucleus of the members come from Westmount, there are swimmers who reside in Montreal West, Outremont, Downtown and Hampstead.

“The typical member is an average swimmer,” says longtime team treasurer Robert Bishin, “Everyone can come in and swim at their own level.”

However, as a result of the high level facilities and training offered, the team does attract some rather elite members. A great example is Ian Smith, who is one of the top ranked swimmers in the world in his age category. He also swam against visiting
Australian and Japanese National teams as a teenager for his native South Africa.

Currently, the oldest member of the team is Syd Kastner, who, in his early seventies, has been swimming competitively for close to six decades. But don’t mess with Syd; he’s still at the top of his game.

The team is also home to a significant number of triathletes, including a few who have done well in the Hawaiian Ironman.

Marianopolis

Marianopolis is a private CEGEP in Montreal, known as much for its high academic standing as for it’s beautiful sports complex. It has a state-of-the-art pool that is heated and long enough to use to train for Olympic-level events. However, this spring, the college is moving from its present location to the old Convent building on Westmount Avenue. “It’s a great pool,” says Ian Smith. “Unlike other facilities, we’re really not crowded. And we have parking!”

Like Dawson College before it, the new Marianopolis College is putting in an underground, multi-level gymnasium. While it’s a big expenditure, a gym is a very used facility, whereas a swimming pool is not. It’s expensive to build and to maintain, and not that many people use it. So, for the time being, the college has no plans to include one in their new sports complex.

Why Is the Swim Team So Special?

The swim team’s members have a choice of several weekly practices, led by Rob Côté, who has been the primary coach of the Marianopolis Master’s swim team for nearly twenty years. Trained in sports physiology at McGill University, he is also a personal sports trainer at Première Studio in lower Westmount.

The practices at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday and Friday cater to the early risers on the team, while the Wednesday 7:30 p.m. practice is popular with night owls. Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. is the busiest practice, with the team taking over the entire pool. This variety allows members to pick and choose when they’ll attend, based on their schedules. Some members come to only one practice, some to all four.

Without a suitable replacement available at press time, the members from Westmount and the surrounding municipalities are worried about losing more than just their workouts. The displacement is partially social as well.

The members have bonded over their common love of athletics – enjoying locker room talk, traveling to sporting events, sharing meals, parties and friendships for twenty five years. The annual Master’s Swim Team Christmas party is hosted yearly in a different member’s home. “It’s a combination of a very good pool and a good group,” muses Smith. “The people are really great!”

Typically, after the morning practices, the swimmers shower and head off to one of several different breakfast destinations, depending on where they’re headed.

The team holds an annual Good Friday brunch, where all the members can sit around the breakfast table and chat without having to rush off to work. This year, they did not take their breakfast for granted, and much of the talk surrounded the displacement and possible solutions to the team’s impending homelessness.

The present Marianopolis will likely be turned into condominiums, but no one knows if the sports complex is going to be ripped down, sold privately or re-done. The latest rumor in the locker rooms is that a local entrepreneur may consider taking over the sports complex to run it as a private enterprise, renting it out to schools in the area and other parties, such as the Master’s swim team. However, at this point, that’s just a fish-tale. As of press time, a new location had still not been found.