Bellefonte YMCA cuts swim team, leaving parents and swimmers outraged and confused

The Bellefonte YMCA is cutting its competitive swim program, leaving the parents of 45 swimmers outraged and in search of answers.

The Bellefonte Stingrays is a swim team for ages 5-18 that draws in swimmers from across Centre County. The team has two competition seasons in summer and winter for swimmers in the intermediate to advanced groups where the Bellefonte YMCA team competes with other YMCA teams from across central Pennsylvania.

Swimmers practice at the Bellefonte YMCA’s pool three to five times a week. In the past five years, the Bellefonte Stingrays have sent a majority of its members to district championships, including 10 swimmers to this year’s statewide meet.

In a Feb. 7 email obtained by the Centre Daily Times, Kristin Erb, the Bellefonte YMCA aquatics director, told Stingrays families that the team would be disbanded after a monthslong search for a new coach yielded no qualified applicants.

“After internal evaluation and discussion, we have made the difficult decision to no longer offer a Swim Team program at the Bellefonte YMCA following the Winter 2023 season,” she wrote.

The YMCA had been looking for a new head coach for the team since coach Mark Grello announced his retirement. Stingrays Swimmers were offered the chance to participate at the State College Area YMCA’s swim team going forward, though parents have a number of concerns about that option.

“There are children that are now not going to be able to swim ... and others that will have to leave the county to go to programs where they can get accepted and are more cost effective,” parent Amanda Szymanski said.

The Centre Daily Times reached out to both Erb and Centre County YMCA CEO Scott Mitchell for comment. Multiple emails and phone calls went unanswered.

A coaching vacancy

After the Feb. 7 email, parents immediately reached out to former swimmers and the community in an attempt to find applicants that could apply last minute for the coaching position. Darlene Moretz, a parent of two swimmers on the team, said prior to the email parents were never informed that the situation was so dire or were asked to help in the search for a replacement coach.

Lynette Kramer, who had coached the team from 2010-2020, said she emailed Erb and branch director Shawn Thompson on Feb. 7 and sent in her resume the following day.

“By the time that I put in my application, Scott informed me that pretty much the decision had been set in stone and they were going to be utilizing the Bellefonte pool for some other programs still related to the swim team,” Kramer said.

Kramer said she would be still willing to come back and coach to save the program, with the help of parent volunteers.

“I can’t on a good conscience let the team fall apart when I know that there would be ways that I would be able to do this with the right amount of support,” Kramer said. “I would absolutely be ready to step in and take over the team again.”

Unanswered questions

A meeting with parents and Mitchell was scheduled for March 6 but was canceled by Mitchell hours before it was set to begin, with Mitchell writing in an email that he’d reach out to other parents who had questions.

Weeks later, parents feel many of their questions have still not been answered. What were the necessary qualifications for a coach? What will happen to the money the booster club raised? Why was Kramer turned down for the position? How will this affect high school competitive swimmers who practice through the YMCA’s team? How does this fit with the YMCA’s community values?

In a series of emails to parents, Mitchell said the $18,536 — not including the $3,347 the club is owed for co-hosting the championships meet — from the booster club is in a YMCA account that will be used “to support swimming” and that all Bellefonte equipment belonged to the YMCA of Centre County.

According to YMCA Swim Program guidelines, any money raised by parent organizations legally belongs to the YMCA. But parents said they feel cheated after years of working swim meets, running concession booths and raising funds to benefit the Bellefonte Stringray swimmers, not other YMCA programs.

“These funds were raised for these kids and this area and should stay local to support THIS swimming community both present and future,” Moretz wrote in an email to Mitchell.

No good options

The swim team is set to be disbanded after the state championship meets this weekend. The YMCA has already adjusted its programming to replace the summer season with a summer swim stroke clinic, but parents like Matt Martin said clinics won’t benefit competitive swimmers.

Not only is the stroke clinic too elementary for his daughter, but it also takes away a key part of the sport, Martin said.

“The whole point of her being on the team is to advance to intermediate,” he said.

If the team disbands, Martin’s 8-year-old daughter won’t be able to swim competitively again until high school. Szymanski said her children won’t ever swim competitively again, considering Bald Eagle Area High School doesn’t have a swim coach of its own. Bald Eagle’s single swimmer, Alaina Cane, practices and is coached through the Bellefonte Stingray’s program.

While the YMCA pointed to the State College YMCA Swim Team in the initial email to families, there are concerns about the ability of Bellefonte swimmers to transfer to that program due to size, distance and cost.

Longtime Stingray parent Jim Pringle worried that swimmers will get lost in the mix at SCAY and lose the individual coaching attention they say makes Bellefonte Y swimmers so competitive. The SCAY team has around 200 swimmers — dwarfing Bellefonte’s 45 swimmers. Parents also have concerns about if all swimmers would be able to compete at meets if the programs merge.

The program’s sizes aren’t the only obstacle. The SCAY swim team costs more per season than the Bellefonte Y. For the SCAY Aqualions, swim team fees per winter season range from $535-$890 depending on age range. The Bellefonte Stingrays’s fees this winter season were $160-420.

For families with multiple swimmers, that could mean hundreds of dollars extra in costs per season, not to mention the cost benefits that come from such a tight knit swim team.

Being on a much smaller team fosters a strong mentorship between the older and younger members, parents said.

“The day my daughter qualified for districts she was so excited,” Szymanski said. “ ... She pulled out a tech suit that a swimmer had passed down to her and she literally swam her best time at championships.

Bellefonte’s team also has programs lowering fees for families with more than one swimmer and a scholarship program. The Sharon Settler Scholarship fund has $15,664 donated by Settler’s family to help cover costs for swimmers in need. Parents have also questions where those funds would go in the event of a merger between the two teams.

The Bellefonte Y location is also much more accessible for families across the county, Szymanski, whose students go to Bald Eagle Area School District, said. The extra distance to SCAY could hinder families from transferring to the other program.

Fiscal repercussions aren’t parents’ only concern — many swimmers have been on the team for years and are now facing an uncertain future. If the team is dissolved, parents say there’s a good chance many of the participants will never swim together again, being from separate school districts.

“You are now taking kids that have swam together since they were five years old and just tearing them apart,” Szymanski said.