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Show IC entering swim Renaissance? I 7T ' 1 .: O I - . By LEE WARNICK Record Editor Could Iron County be entering a Renaissance Age of swimming? Sure looks like it. Swimming in the entire county is taking on a whole new meaning because of a program constantly ongoing at the Cedar Swimming Pool. There, every day, school children from third through eighth grades are being taught to swim, and an amazing percentage are emerging with very good water skills. Under the direction of Cedar swim coach Dick Coston, the program is in the middle of its third year. "We're just now able to stand back and take a look," Coston says. "The kids who are now juniors in high school were the first in the program." Still, Coston continues, "It will be a few years until we have kids who have gone through the entire six-year cycle. We'll really be able to tell then." The program follows the "Red Cross format" and involves most of the 2,000-plus third through eighth grade students in Iron County. Coston explains that the elementary students are brought for two weeks out of each school year for swimming lessons, while those at the Cedar Middle School take the lessons as part of their regular physical education program, and spend six weeks at the pool. "We get students from every corner of the county," Coston says. "All the Cedar elementary schools, Enoch Elementary, Parowan and Enterprise Valley elementaries and the Cedar Middle School are all involved in the program." Coston and other instructors in-structors assisting him follow a tightly-controlled and highly-organized regimen, beginning with the most basic of water skills before even teaching the students to swim. "We work with all kinds of students," he says. "Some of the kids are aquaphobic when they start, but with a little work and attention, we can have them feeling quite comfortable. "We've had kids who were totally afraid of the water two weeks earlier swimming an entire lap in the pool." Using Red Cross swimming tests, Coston divides classes into skill learning as part of their swimming class. Eighth graders from the Cedar Middle School display some of the advanced skills they are number of Boy Scouts able to pass off the tough requirements for a swimming merit badge. "I'm more than happy to help the boys in this regard, also," he says. "I feel like we're adding ad-ding a new dimension to the PE program," the coach continues. "As far as I know, this is the only organized PE program in the entire state for elementary-aged students. stu-dents. "Almost all the teachers I've talked to have been delighted with the program. They have told me their students are more attentive and more easily taught after coming back . from their swimming lessons." "I hope the kids don't feel their swimming lessons during school will be all they need to become good swimmers," swim-mers," Coston says. "Learning these skills involves practice, and I would encourage those wanting to learn to swim better to enroll in summer sum-mer classes we have at the pool." groups, then works on improving their skills at varying speeds. "Our eventual objective ob-jective is to get everyone in the Red Cross intermediate in-termediate classification," class-ification," Costonsays. Just how successful has the program been at doing this? "Quite successful," Coston responds. "I would estimate 75 percent per-cent of the kids in the program right now are water safe and 90 percent of our eighth graders will have survival skills by the time they are done." But Coston is reaping related benefits as well, and they have to be pleasing to him as a swim coach. "We've got 70 kids involved in the Cedar AAU swim program right now," Coston says. "Most have come from this instructional program. If we can continue this progress, Cedar can be a real swimming power in the state within five years." Coston adds he also has noted an increase in the |