Swim season is just around the corner and the Grand Forks Piranhas are chomping at the bit. The well established spring/summer swim club had registration in mid-April and just recently began practices at the local aquatic centre.The club is open to any swimmers starting at five years old and has no upper age limit.“Our older kids can swim six hours a week, training,” said Brandy Needoba, registrar for the club. “Our younger kids are four hours a week until summer then everyone can swim six hours a week plus two hours a week of dryland. Then we have our meets almost every weekend starting in June.”The Piranhas are part of the B.C. Summer Swim Association. The club had 61 swimmers registered last year and Needoba expects to have similar numbers this year.The head coach again this year is college student Robin Van Ek. Van Ek will be assisted by her brother Doug Van Ek and junior coaches Nicole Nuyten and Sarah Heric. The Van Eks are former Grand Forks residents are now attending university with Robin at Calgary and Doug at Victoria. Nuyten and Heric are Grand Forks Secondary students who have both swam competitively with the club for a number of years.The Van Eks returned to Grand Forks at the beginning of May after attending a swim coach conference.The club has a wide range of abilities among the swimmers in the program. “We have some pretty competitive swimmers and some newer swimmers as well,” said Needoba. “We have a good group of kids. We have a real sense of family in our club, that’s the best part. We have barbecues, we have get-togethers. We have a lot of team-building going on.”The Piranhas first swim meet is May 31/June 1 in Nelson. The club hosts their home meet on June 7 at the Grand Forks Aquatic Centre.The regional championships go Aug. 2 and 3 in Trail and provincials are Aug. 15-17 in Kamloops.Needoba said registration is open right up until the end of June. Anyone interested can contact Needoba at 250-442-4054.

Grand Forks Gazette