Hammonton Swim Club marking its 60th anniversary in 2018
Page 4 • Wednesday, June 20, 2018 • The Hammonton Gazette
SWIM, from Page 1
its board of directors and dedi-
cated members—many of whom
are also part owners of the club
due to its membership structure—
remain focused on doing whatever
it takes to preserve the club and
ensure that future generations will
also be able to enjoy it for years to
come.
The Hammonton Swim Club’s
season spans about 100 days from
Memorial Day weekend to Labor
Day weekend, which means it can
often be an expensive daily oper-
ation given the board’s annual
budget of approximately $90,000,
according to board member Jeff
Fusco, who has been affiliated
with the facility for the past 15
years. However, Fusco said there
is a cyclical wave of sentiment
within the families of the club’s
members that ensures continuous
support for the Hammonton Swim
Club.
“What we see a lot is members’
children and grandchildren com-
ing back. We’ve had people who I
guess were stockholders in the
‘50s and ‘60s—their kids have
outgrown the pool and they
stopped coming. Now, their kids
have kids; they come back to us—
’We want to rejoin. Can we reac-
tivate our stock? We want our kids
on the swim team.’ So, for 60
years now, we’re getting third,
fourth generations of families still
coming back,” Fusco said.
The Hammonton Stingrays
swim team is a significant factor
in the amount of support the Ham-
monton Swim Club receives, for
“swim team families” account for
about half of its membership, ac-
cording to Fusco.
For more than 55 of the club’s
60 years, Hammonton Swim Club
members between ages four and
18 have competed against area
swim clubs within the Suburban
Swim Association (SSA), of
which the Stingrays are a found-
ing team.
Molly DeNucci is the head
coach of the Hammonton
Stingrays, which she said is much
more than a way for children to
compete and have fun during the
summer.
“I do not usually force my chil-
dren to do any type of sport or ac-
tivity, but I forced them to join the
swim team one year because it’s a
life lesson, and just because your
kid passes the deep end test for the
pool does not mean they know
how to swim,” DeNucci said.
Since DeNucci first agreed to
coach the swim team, she said she
has rediscovered her childhood
passion for swimming and has en-
joyed being able to witness the
progress of many novice swim-
mers who also discovered their
passion for swimming.
“I think it brought me back to
something that I loved and had not
been around for so long … I loved
last year seeing the progress from
Memorial Day until the last meet
in the end of the July ... For in-
stance, we have the Coaches’ [Be-
ginners]
Squad—they
do
kickboard races at the beginning
of the year ... By the end, they
were swimming a whole lap,” De-
Nucci said.
The Hammonton Swim Club
also offers free swimming lessons
for members looking to learn
without having to compete. The
swimming lesson program is
taught in various two-week ses-
sions by the swim club’s staff of
certified lifeguards (lessons held
on Monday, Wednesday and Fri-
day) throughout the season, and is
even open to non-members for a
per-session fee of $90.
Several of the individuals who
are presently involved with the
Hammonton Swim Club, either as
See CLuB, Page 14
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