Swim Students Ace Pool School

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Local swim teacher Sharon Minasian Skowron is proud to announce that nine students have received their trophies for completing their long distance swims.

Setting a new pool record with a distance of three and one-third miles was 6-year-old Alix Kosinski. Eight-year-olds Poppy Bates and Sienna Rivlin each swam two and one-third miles and 7-year-old Ariana Kramer swam one and two-thirds miles. Six-year-old Tristan Oles  swam one and one-fifth miles, 7-year-old Lucas Long swam one and one-eighth miles and 6-year-old Spencer Lyon completed one mile. Five-year-old Cole Port and 7-year-old Hudson Port each swam two-thirds of a mile.

Minasian Skowron’s mother, Diane, devised a teaching technique that emphasizes what the water does for you and it starts immediately with learning the strokes. She began offering private lessons in the Palisades nearly six decades ago and Sharon started teaching more than 40 years ago and has seen several generations of local children graduate.

Last weekend, she invited her newest long distance swimmers and their parents over to her house for group photos with their trophies and to eat homemade cookies. It’s become a family tradition based on “tried and true” methods. Diane gave private lessons for 46 years in her 52-foot pool in the backyard of her home in upper Bienveneda, finally “retiring” in 2010, but her daughter has continued what she started.

All of Minasian Skowron’s students come to her through referrals. She mostly teaches at her own house and believes it’s never too early to start learning strokes along with floating and turning over techniques.