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Hollidaysburg YMCA’s Grassadonia ‘goes above and beyond’

Tom Grassadonia inspires his Hollidaysburg Area YMCA Tigershark swimmers before a meet. In the six years Grassadonia has been the director, the team has grown in numbers and improved performance.

Hollidaysburg Area YMCA’s director of competitive swimming Tom Grassadonia remembers when he cemented his philosophy of self-improvement.

“A swimmer came up to me and said ‘Coach, I won,’ and I said ‘but did you improve? Did your time go up?’ He said ‘I don’t know.’ That’s when it clicked with me,” Grassadonia said. “We will focus on improvement and blue ribbons will take care of themselves.”

Grassadonia is in his seventh season as the Y’s director of the Hollidaysburg Tigershark swimmers. The team is for children 5 to 18 years old.

The YMCA program feeds eight high schools in Blair, Huntingdon and Cambria counties. YMCA Executive Director Tom Kopriva said Grassadonia has transformed the program.

“In the six years Grassadonia has been the director, our team has grown in numbers, grown in performance and grown in results,” Kopriva said.

“What I first liked about Tom was that the swimmers were given great instruction on technique and worked on their conditioning,” Kopriva said.

“When it came to the meets, it was always … it’s not a matter of winning the race or being better than others; it was being the best you can be,” he said. “That philosophy, once embraced by staff, swimmers and parents, made a huge difference in kids coming to practice, the way they represented themselves and the Y at meets.”

Kopriva started seeing dozens of Grassadonia’s swimmers getting qualifying times for district, state and even national competitions in the YMCA and U.S. swim programs.

Grassadonia himself was not a swimmer in high school. He played football and wrestled. But his children swam since age 5, and he first became involved with the YMCA’s program as president of the swim parent group. His children are no longer in the program, but he continues to lead the team as director.

“When the Y’s swim program went into a funk, when they lost their coach, Tom (Kopriva) reached out to me,” Grassadonia said.

“I took it over, created a vision to where the program needed to be. We didn’t have many swimmers or money in the bank. Being the guy running the program has been an exciting opportunity for me. We have a great staff of eight other coaches.”

When Grassadonia first became director, the team had 55 swimmers. Last year the roster was at 113. They practice at the YMCA pool and Hollidays­burg Area High School.

Grassadonia’s team started the new season after Labor Day.

The season will stretch to April if swimmers qualify for nationals.

The positive influence Grassadonia offers has influenced parents as well as the swimmers.

Tim Dzurko is current president of the Hollidaysburg Area YMCA’s swim parent organization.

“Under the direction and guidance of Tom Grassadonia, the Hollidaysburg YMCA Swim Team, Coaches and Volunteer Parents Organization has hosted, for three consecutive years, one of the largest swim championships in the state of Pennsylvania,” Dzurko said.

“Due to the commitment of Tom, we were able to make the 2017 West Districts YMCA Swimming Championships a memorable and successful event at the McCoy Natatorium on the campus of Penn State University,” Dzurko said.

Each year of the event, the Tigersharks hosted more than 1,500 swimmers from 36 western Pennsylvania YMCAs, more than 150 coaches and officials and more than 100 parent volunteers.

“Tom Grassadonia goes above and beyond to create a welcoming atmosphere for these swimmers and their families,” Dzurko said. “The team is an excellent feeder system for the area high school swim teams as the Tigersharks currently have swimmers from Hollidaysburg, Altoona, Tyrone, Cambria Heights, Northern Cambria, Central Cambria, Huntington and Central high school swim teams.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

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