South Lyon Aquatics Offers U.S. Competitive Swim Team

—Submitted by the South Lyon Aquatics swim team

Every night in the pools at South Lyon and South Lyon East High Schools, students are striving for excellence with the new South Lyon Aquatics swim team.

In their inaugural year, South Lyon Aquatics (SLA) offers area swimmers the opportunity to train year round with a USA Swimming sanctioned team. Offering four levels of coaching from developmental to state and national championship, the club is open to anyone who is passionate about swimming.

Most recently, 14-year-old Mallory Buha of Novi qualified and represented South Lyon Aquatics in two events at the U.S. Junior Nationals, held Dec. 8-10 at the University of Texas, swimming against more than 800 top swimmers from across the country. Buha had the fourth fastest 100-yard backstroke time (55.77) in the U.S. for 14-year-old swimmers in 2011.

Led by head coach Mark VanderMey, an All-American and national record holder at Oakland University, a former member of the USA National team, and an international competitor in multiple events, the team has more than 100 swimmers pulling together talent from South Lyon and the surrounding areas.

Assisting VanderMey in coaching are Yasser Shamoun, former Olympic swimmer and coach; Karen Gehab, All-American and national record holder at Oakland University; and Jill Peterson, high school record holder and assistant coach.

South Lyon girls and boys varsity swim coach John Burch said, “It is very important for the success of the high school program for us to have a USA swim team in the area. Previously swimmers who wanted this level of training had to go to other cities. Now we have a high level program in the area.”

Through USA Swimming and Michigan Swimming, South Lyon Aquatics allows swimmers to compete in local, regional, state and national level swim meets.

The team will host its first annual invitational swim meet, The Arctic Blast, at South Lyon East High School Jan 20-22. The three-day meet will bring 600-700 swimmers ages 8-18 from across the state to the South Lyon community. They will compete in all the state and nationally sanctioned events in the four strokes and distances ranging from 50-1650 yards.

Following The Arctic Blast, the team heads into its short course championship season with district, Junior Olympic and state meets, culminating with a regional sectional meet to be held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, at the end of March.

To find out more information about South Lyon Aquatics, visit their website www.southlyonaquatics.com or contact Head Coach Mark VanderMey at markv@southlyonaquatics.com or Parent Board President Mary Perczak at maryp@southlyonaquatics.com.