Blue Wave Swimming Program Celebrates Season During Banquet

The Blue Wave Swimming program, an affiliate of High 5 Inc., recently held a banquet to commemorate their season. They gave out several awards based on performance, character, improvement, potential and many other categories.

The program celebrated five seniors who are graduating, including Camryn Brown, Michelle Meidt, Annelise Meidt, Lucas Purcell and Nicholas Pfister. Brown will move on to the next level at Northern Arizona University.

Swimmers Reece Riva and Ryan Riva, and parent Armita Rolf Von den Baumen received the Diana Riva Big Heart Award. The award, named in memory of Diana Riva, who recently passed away, is given to those who inspire others through their selfless commitment.

The Blue Wave program trains competitive swimmers from ages 6-18. The younger swimmers will train a minimum of three times a week. The most competitive swimmers train six days a week, doing three double practices per week in the morning and afternoon, getting up to nine sessions.

Head Coach Jamie Peterkin has been working for the program for four years, officially becoming the head man in spring 2022. He was a competitive swimmer growing up in the Caribbean, with his father as his coach. After his swimming career, at the age of 25, he got into coaching full time.

“For me, swimming is more about character development. I want to be influential in helping these kids understand how to be a better person. A lot of kids use this as a vehicle to gain confidence and use this as a means to get fit or to meet friends and be more social as well, so it’s not always about the competition,” said Peterkin. “That’s why, for me, I kind of keep my eye on the bigger picture, which is, ‘You’ll be a human being for as long as you live, you’ll probably be a competitive swimmer maybe until you’re 18 years old.’”

The summer season is next for the program. They will have several championship meets in July, at all different levels. The 14-and-under group is going to compete in a meet called FLAGS (Florida Age Group Championships). The 15-and-up kids will swim at the Florida Senior Championships, and if they qualify for it, they will also attend the Junior Olympics in Houston, Texas, and the Futures Championships in Ocala.

“We do have a younger team, which is exciting for us as coaches,” said Peterkin. “We don’t have too many who are going to be graduating until two years from now, so next year should be a really good year for us.”