BANGOR – The Hurricane Swim Club’s practice was as boisterous as ever on a recent afternoon, with young swimmers stretching, giggling and chatting before getting their warm-up assignments and jumping into the water.

The only difference for this practice? It was being held at the Husson College pool, a huge change from 17 previous years in which the private, U.S. Swimming-affiliated club practiced and held meets at the Bangor-Brewer YWCA in Bangor.

The Hurricanes have been based at Husson since their season started for the year this summer. The team had to find other accommodations after the YWCA told the team last spring it would not renew the Hurricanes’ contract for time at the YWCA’s Aloupis Pool.

The move has sparked several months of controversy and speculation over why the YWCA did not ask the Hurricanes back.

YWCA executive director Lynda Clyve said that the organization made the move out of financial and space considerations.

The Hurricanes feel they were pushed out because they would not merge with a team the YWCA co-sponsors with the YMCA.

The swimmers, who range from ages 8-and-under to high school, seem to have been spared involvement.

“In general the kids are still enjoying the swimming and the competing,” said Hurricanes assistant coach Annette Brinkley, who was running the recent practice in place of head coach John Williams. Williams was in New Jersey for a coaching clinic.

“They’re all still friends with each other,” she added. “They’ve left it to a parental issue.”

Both parties say talk of merging the Hurricanes with the YWCA-YMCA Barracudas started in 2001, after longtime Hurricanes coach Tim Babcock resigned from the team. The Hurricanes were left without a coach, and Eileen Williams, John Williams’ wife and the mother of three Hurricane swimmers, said she understands that a group of Hurricane parents asked the YWCA about taking over control of the coach-less team.

At that time, the Barracudas were still solely sponsored by the YMCA and swam at Husson College.

Eileen Williams said after the Hurricanes hired her husband, they felt no need of YWCA sponsorship. And Clyve decided the YWCA shouldn’t sponsor a team that would compete against a YMCA team.

Meanwhile, Clyve said, there was talk of the YMCA and YWCA combining forces to be co-sponsors of the Barracudas. It was part of an ongoing effort to share resources between the two community organizations, she said.

Indeed, the YM and YW came to an agreement to sponsor the Barracudas, who moved from practicing at Husson to the YWCA.

So for the 13 weeks of the high school swimming season last winter, three teams used Aloupis Pool. The Hurricanes, Barracudas, and Brewer High School team all shared pool time.

The team from John Bapst High in Bangor, which had traditionally practiced at the YWCA, was relegated to practice time at the YMCA, which does not have a regulation (25-yard) pool.

The big chunk of lost time at peak hours sparked complaints from YWCA members who couldn’t get into the pool for their regular lap swims.

Hurricane practices went from 3-4:30 p.m., the Barracudas used the pool from 4:30-6:30, and high schoolers practiced until 9.

“Members were upset that we were taking that much time away from their lap swimming times,” said Darcey Peakall, the YWCA aquatics director. “So it was a member retention [issue].”

Clyve also heard from coaches of all four teams after the swimming season wound down in early spring. It was clear the arrangement wasn’t going to work.

“We got letters and phone calls from all of the various teams with not anybody being ultimately happy,” she said. “[The hours] were too late, they were too early. It wasn’t two hours, it was an 11/2. There just wasn’t enough time.”

YWCA officials also said the organization was losing out on money.

The Hurricanes paid about $25 per hour to rent pool time, a reduced rate the YW gave the team because it uses the pool for about 10 months out of the year. Clyve said regular member uses and rental fees generate $55-100 per hour.

“When you devote four hours of prime time to 12 months of a year at a significantly reduced cost … it’s significant,” she said. “So it was a financial issue and it was also a member issue.”

The YWCA approached the Hurricanes about merging with the Barracudas.

In a memo regarding a pool utilization and swim team usage the YWCA gave to John Williams at a meeting, the YWCA recommended that the Hurricanes be invited to join the Barracudas because “both teams serve the same age group and have similar goals.”

The Hurricanes declined for a number of reasons, Brinkley said.

First, the Hurricanes’ finances are controlled by the team parents. That control would likely be ceded to the YW-YM organizations if the teams were to merge.

Second, the Hurricanes pick and choose which meets they attend and have not been attending as many dual meets. The YMCA teams are involved in Maine’s YMCA league, which features a lot of dual meets. The Hurricanes also allow swimmers to pick and chose which meets in which they participate. Some Hurricane swimmers join just for practice and do not attend meets.

Third, the Barracudas have had high turnover rate with head coaches recently, although the YMCA recently hired Jennifer Cox as a full-time aquatics director and Barracuda coach.

The Hurricanes have had two coaches in their 18-year history.

“The idea was, if we could maintain the things we felt were important … it would work,” Brinkley said. “But of course, it was asking them to come our direction and they were asking us to come their direction. Our gut feeling was that it was an undercutting way to force us to merge.”

Last spring, the YWCA told the Hurricanes it would not renew their contract for pool time, leaving them without a home pool.

“We thought everything was going to be OK, even if we didn’t merge with the team,” Brinkley said. “So it was a big surprise in the spring we were told that our contract for pool time was not going to be renewed.”

Clyve and Peakall said they spent a lot of time tweaking the winter schedule and couldn’t come up with a solution they felt would satisfy the needs of the four teams and the YWCA’s membership.

“In this whole effort to try to find a way to help the Hurricanes and not compete with the YM, we formed a team,” Clyve said. “They chose to go their own way, and then there wasn’t pool room for two year-round teams. And you’re not going to eliminate your own team.

“We all wish we could have accommodated everybody,” she added. “I can’t tell you how long we sat and tried to figure it all out. You hate to not be able to work with everybody.”

The Hurricanes were left with one other option in the city of Bangor: the pool at Husson College.

Williams went to Jonathan “Gabby” Price, who recently became the athletic director at Husson, to find out about pool time.

But Husson had its own pool time to consider. Husson students come first, Price said, followed by the Bangor High boys and girls swim teams because of their longstanding relationship with the college.

Price said after discussion with Husson officials and longtime Bangor High boys swimming coach Phil Emery, the school offered regular pool time to the Hurricanes.

“It’s a positive thing for us and the community,” Price said. “We wanted to be supportive of the community.”

Price said Husson charges $37-45 per hour depending on the activity at the pool. Activities that require a custodian to be present, for example, cost more.

For the Hurricanes, however, the increase in rental fees may be offset by an increase in membership. The team is up to 70 swimmers, which is about 30 more than last year.

The Hurricanes currently practice in the afternoon, but will move to an evening practice time when the high school swimming season starts Nov. 17.

That could bring the biggest change of all for the Hurricanes. Brinkley said there is some worry about what will happen to younger swimmers adjusting to a 7-9 p.m. schedule, and older kids who have homework and other after-school activities.

“Any of the kids in those two lanes, I don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said, pointing to the first two lanes of the Husson pool. “Parents are going to have to figure out what works for their kid. For right now, it’s fine. Their sleep habits will change. We’re just hoping for the best.”