One local organization with a big reason to celebrate this year is the Tracy Tritons Swim Club.
This is the 60th year for the local youth sports organization, which started as Tracy Swim Club in 1965 and grew into one of the most competitive teams in the Mid Valley Swim League.
For most of the club’s history the name and face most associated with the Tritons was Pinkie Phillips, who started coaching swimmers with Tracy Swim Club in 1967 and saw the club grow and become more competitive until she retired in 2010. Phillips died in 2011 at the age of 78.
“In her basement, it was like a shrine for the Tritons,” said Brandon Kanner, president of the Tracy Tritons. “There was a ton of just memorabilia from old trophies, gifts she had been given over the years, just everything.”
He said that most of that memorabilia likely went to her family and close friends, so much of the 60th anniversary season has been devoted to calling up as much history as Kanner and the Tritons coaches and board of directors can find.
The longtime coach’s legacy, however, is easy to see in today’s team. Kanner said that one of most valuable things Phillips did as a mentor was bringing the swimmers she taught back in their teen years to be trained as coaches. Kanner himself started as a competitive swimmer in the 6-and-under division in 1992, and then came back as a coach.
“This was my first job as a kid, and it taught me a lot of valuable lessons. It’s one of the hallmarks of our program is that we have a head coach and adult coaches, but we have this group of young adults that have been with the program for years and have grown up through the program and become role models for the kids,” he said.
“The young kids look up to them and really get to understand what it is to be not only a good swimmer or a good person also and a good hard worker. It teaches a teaches them a lot of values, and you see changes in kids when they’re about 12, 13, that want to be a part of that program and a part of that history. The lightbulb turns on and they start changing the way they act.”
Today the head coach is Jennifer Silva, and Denise Haliczer is the assistant coach, who has also been a board member for several years.
Changes on the team over the years just show that the Pinkie Phillips era was a different time for youth sports.
“One of the great things about the Tritons for decades is that we never had to worry about a coach. It freed up the volunteer board to focus on other areas. Not only that, but until the mid-90s, we never had to worry about a pool or the costs of a pool,” he said, adding that Tracy High School’s pool was also the Triton’s home pool for practices and meets.
“We had a set of keys — I had a set of keys when I was a junior coach for the Tritons — Pinkie would tell the athletic director at the time of Tracy High when we were going to use the pool,” he said. “Now it’s completely different, for a variety of reasons. It needs to be more structured for liability reasons.”
The biggest challenge now for the team is having reliable schedules based on the availability of pools. The Tritons are among those in town who look forward to seeing a new aquatic center in Tracy.
“It’s tough in in this town. There’s just not enough pool space,” he said. In mid-May the swimmers had to do dry land workouts because a pump for Joe Wilson Pool in Dr. Powers Park, where they meet daily, was down. He noted that Tracy Unified School District rents out its pools but availability of the high school pools is subject to school district schedules.
The Tritons work out regularly at Joe Wilson Pool, and their home meets are at the Pinkie Phillips Aquatics Center at West High. Practices are nearly every day, which Kanner said is one of the strong points of the program.
“It does teach commitment and dedication, beyond teamwork and those types of things. To be successful in a sport like swimming, you have to really be dedicated to the craft,” Kanner said. “Kids that stick with it and do well really do learn the value of hard work.”
• Contact Bob Brownne at brownne@tracypress.com, or call (209) 830-4227.