Moria Dailey
Published: January 9, 2006
Who are the Master Swimmers? They’re a group of swimmers, ranging in age from those in their mid-20s to a swimmer who is 82, who use PJC’s newly re-opened pool to practice.
They’ve been a team for about seven years, according to Coach Steven Fair. He’s been coaching them for the past three or four years solid, and had been coaching them before that, but left to go into the restaurant business.
“Then Dotty came to see me and convinced me to come back and coach them,” Fair said, referring to what brought him back to the team.
The team goes to Auburn University for a competition every year, pitting themselves against teams from across the southeast.
The first year the team went, they won in the small team division. The past three years, the team has won in the large team division, beating even Georgia’s “super team”, Fair said.
“What I like is it’s good exercise and it’s also fun because my buddies are there,” Sally Menk, another member of the team, said.
She lives in Gulf Breeze and said she probably wouldn’t make the drive in Pensacola unless she was going to be swimming with friends.
“I wouldn’t go swim laps all by myself – there are five or six people in my lane that I swim in,” Menk said.
But, swimming isn’t all they do, not by a long shot.
“We swim, work out, party,” Whitcomb said, laughing, “and go out to breakfast every Friday morning.”
“And get kicked out of IHOP,” added Fair. He went on to explain that they weren’t exactly kicked out, but they were asked to move to a different room.
They do, however, take their swimming very seriously. A member of the team, at age 82, is ranked in the top 10 nationally, in “10 or so events”, Whitcomb said.
The Master Swimmers also take charity work with the community very seriously, Whitcomb said. They’ve raised more than $1,000 for local charities. Several team members have even traveled to Ireland to compete in a marathon in order to raise money.
The Master Swimmers have a minimum age of 18 required to join, but, as Whitcomb says, “the maximum age isn’t.”