The City of Hazelwood\u2019s municipal swim team, known as the Sharks, devoured the team from Dellwood at the last home meet, giving them three consecutive swim meet victories.<\/p>\n
Coach Todd Ankenbrand has been coaching the Sharks for about four years.\u00a0 Ankenbrand also plans to coach the boys\u2019 swim team at Hazelwood West High School in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that my son is on the team, I decided to start coaching again,\u201d Todd Ankenbrand said.\u00a0 \u201cI coached the team once before between 1990 and 1994, and then moved to Chicago.\u00a0 We\u2019re now back in Hazelwood again and\u00a0 I got the urge to get back into coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ankenbrand points out that it was during the early 1990s when they decided to give Hazelwood\u2019s swim team the name of Sharks.\u00a0 \u201cWe were looking for a way to unify the team and to build the confidence of our swimmers.\u00a0 During our brainstorming, we decided to use \u2018Sharks\u2019 because it best described how aggressive we wanted the team to be in winning swim meets.\u00a0 And, the name has stuck with us ever since,\u201d Ankenbrand said.<\/p>\n
It seemed obvious to\u00a0 name the competition pool at Hazelwood\u2019s White Birch Bay Aquatic Center as the Shark Tank to go along with the team identity. \u00a0But I have a few little kids on the team who are still afraid of getting in the pool because they think real sharks are in there.\u00a0 So we have to be careful\u00a0 about using the term \u2018shark tank\u2019 in front of the young swimmers,\u201d Ankenbrand said jokingly.<\/p>\n
Ankenbrand\u2019s coaching philosophy is always about having fun.\u00a0 \u201cWinning is secondary,\u201d he said.\u00a0 As long as they can go out, have fun and improve by beating their times, that\u2019s what success means to me.\u00a0 This is what I tell the parents, which helps relieve the stress off them too and allows them to enjoy watching their kids swim a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hazelwood Sharks\u2019 victory over the Ferguson team occurred during the second meet.\u00a0 This was huge because of the big rivalry between Hazelwood and Ferguson. It\u2019s been at least 20 years since Hazelwood beat Ferguson in a municipal league swim meet.<\/p>\n
Ankenbrand had a goal this year of winning the meet against Ferguson and his team performed superbly he said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m so proud of them.\u00a0 They are a great bunch of kids and great swimmers,\u201d Ankenbrand said.<\/p>\n
He says for the past several years, the Sharks have ended up in third place out of five teams in the league. His goal this year is to capture second place.\u00a0 They have four more meets before competing in the conference preliminaries and finals.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Hazelwood Sharks experienced a minor setback by losing a very close swim meet to Florissant on July 24.\u00a0 The Florissant swim team has 206 swimmers that can fill every age group.\u00a0 \u201cWe have another chance to redeem ourselves on July 1st when we compete against Florissant again in a swim meet.\u00a0 This time around we\u2019ll be having the event on our own turf in the Shark Tank.\u00a0 So we hope a big crowd of residents will show up at the pool to cheer us on to victory.\u00a0 Another major hurdle we face is a swim meet against Ferguson for the second time on July 11,\u201d Ankenbrand noted.<\/p>\n
Although Florissant has a huge team, Hazelwood\u2019s team is just as strong with at least 130 members who are good swimmers.\u00a0 \u201cWe have a good mix of kids, including older and younger.\u00a0 Our team is a little short on younger kids, age 8 and under.\u00a0 But we\u2019re stocked full of teenage swimmers and they\u2019ve helped us keep our competitive edge,\u201d Ankenbrand said.<\/p>\n
Ankenbrand\u2019s advice to parents who would like to have their kids join the Hazelwood Sharks swim team is to come out in the morning during one of the team\u2019s practice workouts at the Hazelwood Aquatic Center.\u00a0 Talk to the coaches and some of the parents.\u00a0 \u201cThey will find that we have a really good family atmosphere.\u00a0 The parents support their children and do everything they are asked to do. The kids work hard to improve their swim times and enjoy hanging out together.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got super junior coaches who relate well with the kids.\u00a0 And, everybody helps each other out.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fun time for all,\u201d Ankenbrand noted.<\/p>\n
To be eligible to join the Hazelwood Sharks swim <\/strong>team, children must be between the ages of 5 and 18.\u00a0 Swimmers should be able to swim one lap of the pool, free style.\u00a0 Parental involvement is essential for greater team spirit and coordination of activities. To learn more contact Hazelwood\u2019s Aquatic Center Manager Jake Junghanel at (314) 513-5079.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The City of Hazelwood\u2019s municipal swim team, known as the Sharks, devoured the team from Dellwood at the last home meet, giving them three consecutive swim meet victories. Coach Todd Ankenbrand has been coaching the Sharks for about four years.\u00a0 Ankenbrand also plans to coach the boys\u2019 swim team at Hazelwood West High School in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-school-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n