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Community comes together for Royal Invitational
It's safe to assume that if he could've seen what took place Saturday at Rancho Simi Community Park pool, Mlakar would have been satisfied. Simi Valley was temporarily turned into a swim town last weekend when more than 1,000 swimmers from 32 schools competed in the 28th annual Royal Swim Invitational/Josh Mlakar Memorial Meet. According to Royal High head coach Steve Snyder, the meet is the second biggest in Southern California- only the Mission Viejo Invitational is larger, Snyder said. Local schools such as Royal, Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Calabasas, Viewpoint, Agoura, Oaks Christian, Oak Park, La Reina and Moorpark all competed in the event.
"To pull off a meet like this, a combination of things need to happen," Snyder said. "First and foremost, you need a very dedicated group of booster parents that are willing to take on numerous responsibilities. Another thing that needs to cooperate is the weather. We can't have any rain with this many bodies running around. "We also need help from the Park and Recreation Department, numerous vendors and the coaching staffs. Luckily, everything has worked out for us today. Everyone seems to be happy and enjoying themselves," the coach said. Sylvia Bardelli, the Royal Aquatics Booster Club president, organized the event for the second consecutive year. Bardelli said she was more prepared to handle everything the second time around.
The meet serves as the main fundraiser for Royal Aquatics during the season. According to Bardelli, the Invitational raised $10,400. Bardelli said many volunteers deserve credit. "To make this event work we need 50 people working certain odd jobs every hour," Bardelli said. "We need about 40 people timing the races, a team of three or four entering all the times into a computer, numerous officials, people working the snack shop, people cooking food and other odd jobs. They've all done a great job, and proof of that is we're going to finish around 6 p.m. today instead of 8." One of the 50 people working at all hours was Alina de Armas, who constantly entered swimmers' times into a computer. According to Snyder, one of the first things done in preparation for the event every year is to make sure de Armas is on board to help. She had previously worked large swim meets in the Pac-10, so the size of Saturday's meet was nothing to new to de Armas and is actually one of her favorites to work. "At this meet, you get everyone from a future CIF champion to a swimmer that can barely make it across the pool," de Armas said. "My goal is to treat them all like champions. Some of these competitors will never compete in a championship event, so we want to make this seem like one." Another goal de Armas had this year was to make every coach and team feel comfortable. "I've been doing this every year since 1994, and the one thing that's certain is a couple of new coaches and teams will be here for the first time, and they'll be intimidated by the size of the event," de Armas said. "Due to this, we never rush kids or coaches to a certain place. We take into consideration what they're going through." Agoura High athletic director and swim coach Jason Rosenthal has taken his Chargers to the event numerous times. Rosenthal said he's always impressed with how smooth the Invitational runs. "You got to tip your hat to Royal," Rosenthal said. "This meet is very big for the swimming world, and with so many schools competing, it's a chance for top swimmers to show just how good they are." The day served as a chance for many schools, such as the boys' and girls' meet winners from Oaks Christian, to showcase their talent. Lion sophomore Chase Bloch was a fan of the event because of the large-scale competition. "It's great to expand from our league and race against schools that otherwise you would never see, like La Canada and Hart," Bloch said. "On a day like this our goals remain the same. We still want to go out there, race our best and have fun." The meet also served as a way to honor Mlakar. A monument for Mlakar, located at the event, was covered in flowers. A moment of silence was also held for Mlakar to open the festivities. Mlakar "was an elite swimmer," Snyder said. "He had the skills to be a potential CIF champion. Besides that, he was an outstanding student and an accomplished artist and musician. He's one of the most gifted, multitalented individuals I've ever known. He would have liked this event a lot." A booth was also set up to honor former Royal student and water polo player Tyler Borberg, who drowned last summer. Bardelli said she expects to run the event for the next three years and that preparation will begin soon for next year's meet. "Probably tomorrow," Bardelli said with a laugh. |
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