Inconnu’s coach talks year-end awards, progress for young swim team

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Fort St. John’s swim club recently released their year-end award winners with next month’s provincial championships on its radar.

Inconnu Swim Club posted the winners across 12 categories on its Facebook group on Saturday, June 27th, highlighting factors such as performance, improvement, and training methods.

Coach Anton Titov said the club has continued to improve since his start in the program, highlighted by a showing at the Swim BC Divisional Championships, which took place in Vernon from June 19th to June 21st.

Titov told Energeticcity.ca the team’s roster doubled from a year ago to 14 participants at the meet, and brought home a total of 30 medals, including three in the relays.

“It starts obviously right from the bottom up,” said Titov. “It is not about the amount of distance you can put in, it’s the technical execution.”

“It is the involvement and mental awareness of what the athlete is doing in the water that’s of primary importance.”

In its season-ending awards, Leo Rossi was selected as the club’s swimmer of the year. Rossi won medals at the Swim BC Winter Provincial Divisionals and a regional competition in Grande Prairie.

Titov described Rossi as “pigeon-holed” in longer distances when he arrived 18 months ago, but has since seen a complete transformation in his swimming prowess.

Titov said of Rossi: “The objective was to really dial in his technique. It is still possible to get him to make these dramatic changes, predominantly his kick work, and to move away a little bit from the freestyle disciplines into the individual medley to have a more well-rounded athlete.”

“He has seen tremendous progress from the 50 [metre] freestyle up to the 800-metre, and just as importantly, his 200-metre individual medley work.”

Titov told club executives he would like to see a male and female swimmer of the year going forward, an idea he said they were receptive to.

Quinn McCue, who would have been Titov’s runner-up for swimmer of the year, won the award for hardest trainer.

The 14-year-old saw her time in the 50-metre butterfly stroke fall by nine seconds, from 39 seconds to just 30 seconds.

Titov said her approach to practice is “no-holds barred,” and she shows up for every session. 

“[McCue] was predominantly a breaststroker; for the past year, she was stuck with the exact same time,” said Titov. “[It was] racking my brain trying to find new ways to break through.  I know a lot of it is psychology, but you still want other development.”

“She made dramatic improvements in her butterfly swimming, and in the past couple of months, we could see from training, [the] results. She’s a determined girl, pays very close attention to what is being taught, and just as importantly, really lays it down in training and goes hard.”

There is a bright future for potential swimmers to find their feet with the Inconnu swim club, as Titov said preparations for next year are already underway.

“I’m smiling ear to ear whenever I think about these kids and the work they’re doing,” said Titov. “The progress has been insane. [It is] really, really, really, really great to see.”

Inconnu swim team members will next head to a pair of meets in July, including the BC Games in Kelowna.

More details about the FSJ Inconnu Swim Club is available on the team’s Facebook page and website.