The swimming lanes in the Bangor YMCA’s Coombs Pool are more crowded this fall, thanks to the efforts of the two men heading up the YMCA Barracuda swim program.

After head coach Chris Carlisle of Orono and assistant coach Chip Diamond of Bangor began a big push to increase participation in their Barracuda program the last couple of years, their efforts finally paid off this year as attendance at the preseason swim practices has doubled from last year.

“We only had about 20 kids in the same program last year,” said Carlisle.

“The program was going downhill. I wanted to plug up the holes and turn the program around.”

This is Carlisle’s third year as the program’s head coach. After two years of recruiting, heavy advertising through posters and mailings, and old-fashioned word-of-mouth promotion, he is finally reaping a return on his efforts.

“I passed out flyers to almost all the other schools in the “I passed out flyers to almost all the other schools in the Greater Bangor area,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle attributes the program’s sudden growth this year to the fact that the coaching situation has stabilized – there’s no longer a different coach each year, and the fact that the program is starting to gain more swimmers than it loses each year.

“We’re fairly excited,” said Diamond, who is also age group coach, “especially since most of our growth seems to have come from the early age groups.”

Swimmers ages 5 to 20 from Brewer, Bangor, Hermon, Hampden, and even as far away as Newburgh have already signed up for the program, which is currently in the midst of its four-week preseason session.

Practice sessions are being held from 5 to 7 p.m. each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

The regular winter season begins Oct. 12. During the regular season, the Barracudas will compete in eight YMCA League dual meets and at least five United State Swimming invitational meets.

This is Diamond’s first year with the program, but it hasn’t taken too long for Carlisle’s zeal for the program to rub off on him.

“We want to get to where we can be competitive in state meets, YMCA nationals (meets), and YMCA Junior Nationals down the road,” Diamond explained, emphasizing “down the road.”

In the meantime, Carlisle and Diamond will concentrate on getting the kids to have fun, enjoy swimming, and improve themselves as swimmers.

Currently, the two instructors are teaching the swimmers different strokes. Carlisle teaches swimmers 11 and older and Diamond takes the younger kids.

“We’ll worry about giving them goals and times to shoot for later on,” Diamond said.

With all the attention his program has received lately and the big increase in the number of swimmers on the team, Carlisle could be satisfied with his progress.

Not.

“I think we can get quite a few more swimmers to come out and swim with us,” said Carlisle. “I’m pleased but not satisfied.”