Meet the 2024 BridgeMill Barracudas summer swim team

CANTON, Ga. — In his first season as Head Coach with the BridgeMill Barracudas summer swim team, Coach Brandon Spivey is extremely proud of the team of 128 swimmers who improved their technique and each set their own personal best times in the pool, but more importantly improved their technique and had fun along the way. Taking over for previous Head Coach Laura Mikszan, who led the team to an undefeated season last summer, Coach Spivey points out the tremendous growth that the team experienced under her leadership over 8 years.

In addition to Coach Spivey, the team’s leaders included Lead Coach Lilly Graves who assisted him with ensuring practice ran smoothly and efficiently, as well as making tough decisions about who would swim what event in each meet and then handling meets including filling missing spots, taking notes, and offering her advice. Val Treichler served as team coordinator for the 2nd year, managing all of the behind-the-scenes work such as organizing how each meet will run with the opposing team, communicating important information to parents and answering questions, and the lengthy—but necessary—task of organizing volunteers.

After each practice, they join in a team cheer which is simply, “On three: One, Two, Three, Oo Barracudas Rock!” Each Friday following a meet, they host a “Fun Friday” at the pool where swimmers and coaches play games and enjoy a sweet treat. The team celebrated together at the end of the season with a party, where they announced swimmers who received the Coaches Award, given to those who go above and beyond in practice and do whatever is asked of them; Best Team Players given to those who cheer on their teammates and bring a positive attitude to the pool; and Most Improved given to those that the coaches felt improved the most in their age group for the season.

Any member of the BridgeMill Athletic Club aged 5-18 is welcome to join Barracudas summer swim team. Registration opens in March.

For the 2025 summer swim season, the team’s goal will remain the same: get better at swimming while having fun!

This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.