Stingray Swim Club’s swimmers, friends and family gathered for the 2016 End of Season Annual Awards Banquet at the Westin this past weekend, celebrating the end of a year characterized by change, innovation and an unstoppable drive forward while also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the club’s inception.

The club’s two coaches – Head Coach David Pursley, and newly arrived Asst. Coach Mark Randall (who joined the Club in April 2016) — spent the afternoon recognising all the club’s swimmers and talking about the qualities of the athletes who were honoured with the Spirit Award and the Most Improved Award for their swim group.

The adjectives and characteristics used to celebrate these young people, characteristics such as integrity, commitment, enthusiasm and discipline are good reminders that in today’s day and age, when there is so much negativity in the news, that there is an incredible strength and discipline that our young people can find in sports and particularly in the sport of swimming. 

The Spirit and Sportsmanship Awards go to swimmers who display a strong sense of team spirit, sportsmanship and camaraderie; who participate fully, are enthusiastic members of the Club and whose spirit is contagious. These awards were presented to: Jorian Neblett, Bronze Group; Kylie Porter, Silver; Jake Bailey, Gold; Alex Dakers, Senior and Cole Morgan, High Performance.

 The Most Improved Swimmer Awards were presented to: Malcolm Hill, Bronze Group; Kyra Rabess, Silver; Katriona Williams, Gold; Kenneth Glidden, Senior and Sarah Jackson, High Performance. The inaugural High School Development Group Award for Commitment and Enthusiasm was presented to Anthony Christian.

An additional award, The Shepheard Cup, goes to a swimmer who is committed, enthusiastic, even passionate about swimming – doesn’t always have to win, but does well; represents their Club and country with pride at home and overseas and generally is a great kid to be around the pool and to have on the team. The Cup was donated to the Club by former Cayman Islands Government and Stingray Coach, Marie Shepheard and her family as a legacy to her son Leo, who died tragically young at 19 in a car accident; Coach David used this opportunity to send an important message to the swimmers, some of whom are now starting to drive, about road safety, making the right choices about driving and who you ride with and the absolute need to wear a seat belt and not to text while driving. The 2016 recipient of the Shepheard Cup was Ria Plunkett. 

Also recognised at the Banquet were Ms. Anne Marie and Coach Ryan Mushin from the Lions Pool, Parent Volunteers of the Year Penny McDowall, Linda Key, Joel Neblett and Tracey-Ann Lawla and Coaches David and Mark.

And finally, Stingray’s leavers were presented with a parting gift and encouraged to continue giving whatever they do their all. Those moving on this year are Cole Morgan, Catriona MacRae, Axel Torres, Nicole Torres, Will Roberts, Kylee Glidden and Brittany Chavarria. 

“It is an honour to work with these young people,” said Head Coach David Pursley. “They work hard every day, doing something they love and as a club our goal is to keep getting better so we can continue to inspire them to deliver their best. Last year we introduced an innovative underwater filming programme — while this year we will ramp up our on-site dryland training capabilities so that our swimmers can maximise their time training at the pool, while continuing to focus on their studies and to excel in that arena as well.”

Stingray swimmers were members of the National Team which represented the Cayman Islands at the Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships in the Bahamas, June 29 — July 3rd; and then will travel to the North Shore Swim Club MIT Meet in Boston, July 28 — August 1st and the ISCA Senior Summer Championships in St. Petersburg, August 2-6th.

Stingray swims through the summer, with the summer schedule starring on Monday July 4th and continuing through to August 1st. There will then be a two week break … and then it all starts again! 

For information on Stingray Swim Club visit our website www.caymanswimming.com  or email [email protected].