24-25

SASKATOON ​GOLDFINS SWIM CLUB

Online registration opens:

• Monday, July 15, 2024 (returning members)
• Thursday, August 22, 2024 (new members)

Training starts Monday, September 9, 2024

Dear Goldfins Community,

The 2023/24 swim season was an incredible year for our athletes and our club.

The Goldfins saw many record breaking and personal best swims across all competitive groups.

The Goldfins were successful in their bid for the 2025 Speedo Canadian Masters Swimming Championship and look forward to hosting the ​event in May. This will be great opportunity to see many Masters swimmers from across Canada compete and the opportunity to officiate ​on a National swim deck in our home pool.

The Goldfins Board of Directors worked diligently on governance, budgets, growth, and future planning for the ongoing success of the ​Goldfins for years to come during 2023/24. This swim season welcomes some new faces to the board. We look forward to continuing our ​successes in and out of the pool as we continue our Project Streamline pathway.

The Board would like to thank all our Coaches, Administration, Members, Volunteers and Community ​Stakeholders for their continued support and contributions to the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club.

On behalf of the Goldfins Board of Directors,

Randall Keays

Dear Goldfins Families,

What a great year it has been! Last season the Goldfins graduated its largest ever class, with 15 swimmers graduating high school in June ​2024. July 2024 will see the Olympic Games hosted in Paris, France with Goldfins member Blake Tierney representing Team Canada! As ​an Olympic year – and with graduating so many members – summer 2024 will be a natural transition period as the Club continues to ​grow and evolve. Goldfins coaches will continue to deliver an inclusive and progressive program for all ages and abilities. The mission for ​the Club is to “Excellence in sport, excellence in life” by creating an environment of Inclusive, Committed, Community, Excellence.

I want to thank everybody for their support in the 2023-2024 season, I am happy to say that the Club grew at all levels, from grassroots to ​competitive to Masters. Thank you to everyone that worked hard to keep the pool a safe and welcoming place to be. Goldfins swimmers ​will move through our White (LTAD Learn to Train), Blue (LTAD Train to Train) and Gold (LTAD Train to Train/Train to Compete), with each ​stage having a dedicated curriculum to best fit each stage of athlete development.

The Goldfins Swim Club continues to offer the best educated and NCCP certified coaches in the country, with two coaches on staff that ​are Senior Coach Certified, three that are Age Group Trained and all staff with a minimum of 101 Coach Trained. For 2024 Coach Gary will ​join me as a graduate of the Advanced Coach Diploma program through the Canadian Sport Institute. As part of our NCCP training all ​coaches must go through the Making Ethical Decisions module that helps to ensure you are getting the highest standards from the staff ​as we coach and mentor your child(ren).

I am looking forward to seeing you on the pool deck and thank you for choosing the Saskatoon Goldfins ​Swim Club as your sport provider.

Yours in Swimming,

Steven Hitchings, ChPC NCI Advanced Coach

Head Coach

Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club

My name is Nicole Soloduik and this will be my second year as the Junior Goldfins Program Administrator. I have been a part of the ​Junior Goldfins since childhood, beginning as a swimmer and eventually coaching for the Junior Goldfins. The past year has been a big ​learning experience full of great experiences and I look forward to continuing this role with the Junior Goldfins.

My love for swimming began at a young age and never wavered. My love for children and teaching was always a big part of my life ​which led me to become a teacher. Merging these two passions has allowed me to work with the Junior Goldfins Coaches and ​colleagues to help to offer the highest quality of swimming that we can!

I look forward to continue working with the swimmers, their families and our coaches to help the ​swimmers build their strengths, technique and confidence. We celebrate all of our swimmers' ​successes and push them to reach their fullest potential. I hope to keep building our program to be ​the best it can be for our swimmers and families!

See you this season!

Nicole Soloduik

Excellence in sport, excellence in life.

Saskatoon Goldfins provides growth and development opportunities to teach life skills through the sport of ​swimming. Our successes are celebrated by the excellence we achieve in and out of the pool.

We provide opportunities and pathways for all ages, ​abilities, cultures, and identities.

We are stronger when we support each other through ​our challenges and celebrate our successes.

We show up for ourselves and for our team.

We work to achieve our best as an organization and ​as individuals.

The Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club Board of Directors proudly ​approved our Strategic Plan (2023-2026) in January of 2023.

Click on the image to view the plan!

The Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club is governed by a Board of Directors, which is elected by the membership. The current Board members ​are listed below as well as on our website under Coaches and Board.

Board meetings are usually held the third Tuesday of the month during the swim season. All club members are entitled to attend regular ​board meetings, and are encouraged to attend the Annual General Meeting, usually held in November, and the Spring General Meeting, ​usually held in May. Each member family is entitled to vote at the Annual and Spring meetings.

President

Vice President

Treasurer

Secretary

Randall Keays

Tracey Kennedy

Amanda Anderson (Dwight Grayston - mentee)

Carey Hodgson

Registrar

Public Relations

Officials

Meet Manager

Team Manager

Jay Magus

Rebecca Gotto

VACANT

Rachel Boyko

Belinda Bilous (Drew Findlay - mentee)

Bingo

Fundraising

Equipment

Sponsorship

Shawna Dubiel

Shawna Dubiel

Tina Zimonick

Kae-Lynn Gebhard

Steven Hitchings

The Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club welcomes you to another exciting season of swimming. As many of you know, the closure of the Harry ​Bailey Aquatic Centre has presented limited space for Goldfins programming. The Goldfins Swim Club’s coaching staff have been working ​diligently behind the scenes to attempt to create space to admit as many interested members as possible.

During the month of September 2024, the Goldfins coaching staff will be assessing swimmers to determine if proper swimmer placement ​in the program has taken place. If changes need to be made to ensure your swimmer is being properly challenged, you will be contacted ​to consider moving to appropriate level placement, more advanced lessons, or your swimmer will receive an invitation to join the ​competitive swim club – Goldfins White 1 level (3X/week).

Please ensure you are bringing your swimmer to the Junior Goldfins lessons you have registered your swimmers to attend i.e., correct ​days/times. The Club does not have space to accommodate swimmers in lessons that they have not pre-registered in. Therefore, if you ​are unsure of which day/time you have registered your child please contact Nicole to confirm their program placement. Please have your ​swimmer arrive on pool deck for their lesson, no more than five (5) minutes prior to the start of their scheduled lesson. This will help to ​keep the Goldfins’ deck space available for dryland programming.

Please direct all Junior Goldfins program/lesson inquiries to Nicole Soloduik ​– Junior Goldfins Program Administrator, by emailing nicole@goldfins.ca.

See you at the pool!

Our goal is

GRADUATION!

The Junior Goldfins Swimming Lesson Program is designed to prepare swimmers to graduate ​into the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club competitive program. The Saskatoon Junior Goldfins ​program serves as an excellent preparation step for those swimmers who look forward in ​taking the next step in perfecting swimming technique and building endurance skills.

Swimmers focus on improving technical execution of the four competitive strokes and ​accompanying competitive skills, while building endurance and speed technique. Swimmers ​register for appropriate age/stage lesson levels; Novice, Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Endurance and speed requirements increase as swimmers move through the four groups ​beginning with single 5 – 25M stroke/skill execution, progressing into continuous 100M ​Freestyle and Backstroke event completion.

Swimmers are taught competitive skills: flip turns, transitions from one stroke into another ​and dive starts. Although this program is pre-competitive, the program features ​opportunities for swimmers to embrace competition; learning to race in skill testing events ​and at the Little Caesars Fun Meets (November 2024, March 2025 and June 2025).

All four stroke segments are introduced in a progressive manner: Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly.

Swimmers are provided with an introduction to the rules of competitive swimming. This program provides a progressive learning scheme ​to bridge the step between “learning to swim” to “learning to race”!

Checklist for choosing the appropriate level of Junior Goldfins swimming lessons for your child.

Register your swimmer for the highest level for which they can meet the listed requirements.

• Junior kickboard
• Fins (short-blade recommended)
• Goggles (swimming style, not scuba)
• Tight-fitting swimsuit (Royal Blue is preferable)
• Swim cap (recommended)
  

Visit Al Anderson's Source for Sports.

The official equipment supplier for the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club!

• Junior kickboard
• Fins (short-blade recommended)
• Goggles (swimming style, not scuba)
• Tight-fitting swimsuit (Royal Blue is preferable)
• Swim cap (recommended)
  

Visit Al Anderson's Source for Sports.

The official equipment supplier for the Saskatoon ​Goldfins Swim Club!

• Junior kickboard
• Fins (short-blade recommended)
• Goggles (swimming style, not scuba)
• Tight-fitting swimsuit (Royal Blue is preferable)
• Swim cap (recommended)
  

Visit Al Anderson's Source for Sports.

The official equipment supplier for the Saskatoon ​Goldfins Swim Club!

• Junior kickboard
• Fins (short-blade recommended)
• Goggles (swimming style, not scuba)
• Tight-fitting swimsuit (Royal Blue is preferable)
• Swim cap (recommended)
  

Visit Al Anderson's Source for Sports.

The official equipment supplier for the Saskatoon ​Goldfins Swim Club!

Al Anderson's Source for Sports will again be ​partnering with the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club ​to assist our members with their equipment/team ​gear purchases. The link to the Junior Goldfins ​Gear Package will be available soon!

Please have your swimmer bring the following equipment to their first lesson:

• Junior kickboard
• Fins (short-blade recommended)
• Goggles (swimming style, not scuba)
• Tight-fitting swimsuit (Royal Blue is preferable)
• Swim cap (recommended)
  

We realize that some of the equipment orders will not arrive until later ​September 2024. Coaches will be aware of this situation and will make ​accommodations until all swimmers receive their equipment.

Please ensure that your swimmer's equipment is marked with a permanent ​marker with their name as to prevent loss.

Goldfins Swim Caps can be purchased through the club's Equipment Manager, ​Tina Zimonck. Please contact Tina to arrange cap purchases at ​equipment@goldfins.ca.

*A one-time SNC registration fee of $30.00 will be applied at registration.

The Club does not accept cash payments. There are three methods to pay monthly swim fees:

CREDIT CARD: The preferred method of payment. If you choose to pay by credit card, the card must remain on file throughout the ​season.

POSTDATED CHEQUES: If paying by postdated cheques, all cheques must be received in the office before registration is approved ​for swimming. If there are any additional charges added to the account during the month, an additional cheque or etransfer ​must be received in the office by the 7th day of the billing month. Please check your account online at month end for any ​outstanding charges not covered by the postdated cheque.

• Date cheques for the 1st of the month, starting with September 1 and ending with June 1
• Make cheques payable to the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club
  
• Mail cheques to:

Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club

122 Bowlt Crescent

Saskatoon, SK S7M 0L1

• Or you can put the cheques in an envelope labelled Goldfins and leave it at the Shaw Centre front desk. Do not give cheques ​to the coaches as they will not accept them.
  

E-TRANSFER: If paying monthly fees by e-transfer, the e-transfer must be received by the Club Administrator by the 1st of the ​month. If the e-transfer is not received by the 1st of the month, the non payment of fees will be treated the same as a “NSF ​Cheque or Declined Credit Card”. All e-transfers should be directed to payments@goldfins.ca.

To withdraw a Junior Goldfin swimmer, “official notice to withdraw” must be emailed to the Goldfins Office at: ​administration@goldfins.ca.

Please do not give either written or verbal notice to the Coach(es) as this will not constitute “official notice” received by the Goldfins ​Office.

If during the season a swimmer moves from Junior Goldfins to competitive Goldfins, there is a 30-day window that if a swimmer reverts ​back to Junior Goldfins that there is no financial penalty. After the 30-day window, if a swimmer chooses to remain in the competitive ​program, the Competitive Withdrawal Policy will apply.

Every swimmer must take a shower prior to entering the pool. Outdoor footwear may not be worn on the pool deck. Outdoor shoes ​must be removed before entering the pool area. Food is not permitted on the pool deck. Glass is not permitted anywhere in the pool ​area. No exceptions. Bad behaviour will not be tolerated. We ask that parents to monitor their children during the lesson. The ​instructors are there to instruct every swimmer and cannot do that if a child is being disruptive. The instructors have a 3 strike rule. ​The child will be asked to leave the lesson if they are being disruptive and not fully participating in the class to the best of their ability.

By registering in the Junior Goldfins Swim School, I give permission to the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club to publish (post) photographs ​of my child(ren) on the bulletin boards at Harry Bailey Aquatic Centre and the Shaw Centre, Website, Newsletter/Flash and promotional ​materials.

The Saskatoon Goldfins would like to thank our sponsors and partners from this past ​season, for their invaluable support and commitment to our club and our swimmers.