Kids and adults stream in and out of the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms, some headed for the basketball and volleyball courts, others to the activity rooms and exercise equipment. At the pool, kids learn to swim, while other more advanced swimmers churn out lap after lap under the direction of the YMCA swim team coaches.
It’s about what you might expect at any YMCA.
But, tucked away beyond that in the far end of the same 50-meter pool, there’s something you might not expect.
Amongst the din of splashing swimmers, one of the New Tampa Y’s more successful programs toils in relative peace, a group of tightly-coiffed, nose-clipped synchronized swimmers, young and old, dancing beneath the water and working together in perfect harmony.
The Tampa YMCA Synchro (TYS) team, based at the New Tampa YMCA since starting in 2004 and one of the few programs in the central part of Florida — but a regular on the state and region competition circuit — is coming of age.
“The key to a successful team is when swimmers get a taste of improvement and get a taste of excellence and the winning,’’ said 26-year-old Camille Albrecht, who started as an assistant coach in 2009 and has been head coach of the TYS program since 2013. “A lot of our younger girls saw some of the success the older girls were having, and they want those same things and they’re working harder because they already know what success looks like.”
Success is measured by competitors like 19-year-old Wesley Chapel resident Saloni Mehrah, who participated at the U.S. Nationals in Mesa, AZ, along with 13-year-old Benito Middle School student Julianna Silva.
Success also is sending synchronized swimmers to compete for a spot on the U.S. National Team, which Silva, 12-year-old New Tampa resident Katie Wieckowski and 10-year-old Jennah Hafsi, who are both homeschooled, did in Coral Springs, FL, this spring.
Success also is sending almost half your team — which qualified with top-3 finishes at Regionals — to the Junior Olympics next month, to compete against roughly 1,000 other synchronized swimmers.
Mehra and Meghan Wieckowski will compete in the 18-19 age group, and Abby Eckhardt, Kyra Okin and Zoe Keegan have qualified in the 16-17s.
Silva, Camila Acuna, Maria Pinilla-Baquero and Ariana Alonso are in the 13-15 age group, while Katie Wieckowski, Jennah Hafsi, Jennifer Lynfatt, Lilly Weber and Teghan Theile are all competing in the 12-under division.
The 14 synchronized swimmers heading to the Junior Olympics, held June 24-July 2 at the Nassau County Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, NY, is the most the program has ever sent, better than the previous best of 10 swimmers last year.
Synchronized Swimmers Ice Cream Fund Raiser
In order to travel to the prestigious event, the TYS is hosting a New York-themed Ice Cream Social on Saturday, June 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., at the New Tampa YMCA. The synchronized swimmers will show off their latest routines and custom-made suits (that can cost $150 and more), and even the dads and brothers will get into the act as the “SyncBros” perform a routine.
The show is free to attend and the TYS and the parents will be selling ice cream, root beer floats, pizza, salad and drinks. There also will be baskets filled with prizes, and tickets to enter the drawing are just $2 each or $5 for three.
Albrecht has helped grow her team by holding two summer camps each year, to teach the finer points of her sport to younger kids. Her hope is to make synchronized swimming, which until the turn of the century was known as “water ballet,” a primary sport.
A former synchronized swimmer herself for the Tampa Bay Synch Rays, Albrecht says she started competing when she was 7.
“My mom wanted me to have a sport, and I loved to dance and I loved swimming,’’ she says. “I had already broken both my arms, so we thought that would be safe.”
Abby Eckhardt, 15, who has been on the New Tampa team for five years, started her athletic career as a gymnast, competing for three years until a neck injury sidelined her. She found her athletic outlet in the pool.
“It fell right into place for her,’’ said her mother, Amy. “It’s the perfect sport.”
“I think its challenging and I like all the friendships you make with all the girls,’’ said Abby. “We’re like a giant family.”
Many synchronized swimmers on the team come to the sport after trying swimming, gymnastics, ballet and/or dancing. In fact, synchronized swimming has always been described as a hybrid of those sports.
The daughter of former Tampa Bay Buc offensive tackle Steve Young (not be confused with the former Bucs and San Francisco 49ers quarterback of the same name), Albrecht says her girls are hard workers. While most people’s first question is always, “How do they hold their breath so long?,” Albrecht says the swimmers are as fit and strong a group as you will find.
“People don’t know how much work we do outside the pool,” she said. “The basic skillset we look for is flexibility, and then it’s strength. We do a lot of cross training, a lot of land work. You have to be strong.”
Albrecht says it takes years to perfect synchronized swimming. Mastering the solo aspect of the sport is challenging enough, but then to be able to synchronize your routine with others takes years of practice.
To get her swimmers ready, Albrecht has former SynchRay swimmers Amanda Olson and Brittany McCauley on her staff. And Lily Hu, a USF student, joined the staff after moving here from China, where she competed internationally in the sport.
For more information about the synchronized swimming program at the New Tampa Family YMCA (16221 Compton Dr. in Tampa Palms), visit TampaYMCA.org/locations/new-tampa, or call 866-9622.
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