USC Team Wins Lifeguard Showdown

Goose and Maverick weaved their way through the best of the best in Top Gun in order to find out who the best pilots were. Sunday morning at Upper St. Clair's local lifeguards had their own competition to see who came out on top.

Upper St. Clair had two teams, one of which won the event. Although they didn't use catchy moniker names used in Top Gun, they did come up with a humorous team name: "Patron controlled task force featuring Jon Quinn's Smart Phone." It didn't quite roll off the tongue as Christopher Biswick, the aquatics supervisor at the Community and Recreation Center announced their victory, but it did trumpet the fact that Jon finally joined the 21st century and upgraded his phone recently.

The horseplay demonstrated with the team names shows the camaraderie teammates have for one another, however it did not correlate to the serious nature of the competition. The lifeguards were focused on performing their best when the competition began because their role at the pool is one of very serious nature.

"I thought everyone did very well. It's fun and brings back to memory some of the details learned in training," said Biswick after the competition.

In order to become a lifeguard, individuals must pass two tests. One needs to become certified in CPR and Lifeguarding/First Aid. Many of the tasks performed to earn a certificate may not be seen in real-life situations.

"This competition really refreshes your skills and the attention to details needed to accomplish the tasks correctly," Jon Quinn said.

Quinn competed in the first annual competition last year and lost out to a team from Butler. This year, he joined supervisor Mike Kelly and fellow lifeguard Lilly Olsakovsky on the winning team. All three lifeguards work at the Upper St. Clair Community and Recreation Center.

The competition consisted of seven different events all of which were weighed equally. There was a written test, a first aid test, an obstacle course called the great challenge, a CPR test, a swim relay and a brick relay which was just like the swim relay but with a 10 pound brick on their stomach. There was also a backboard competition where two of the three team members placed their other teammate on a backboard in the water while the "injured" person laid lifeless. Most of the competitors said the brick relay was the toughest event.

"I have a friend who has done about 20 backboards this summer, but I haven't done any yet so the competition is great at jarring your memory on certain skills," Kelly said.

"I was flattered Mike chose me to be on the team, it was an honor to be picked," said Olsakovsky, the female member of the winning team.

Whitehall and Avonworth were the other two areas represented in the competition which is still in the infancy stages. One of the Whitehall teams took third place and the other Upper St. Clair team finished second. Their team name was "When in doubt, fish it out."

Biswick, who created and organized the lifeguard competition, pointed out that "showdowns" like the one held on Sunday will prepare lifeguards for a potential emergency situation. The event was sanctioned by the American Red Cross which had judges on site to oversee the competition.

The winning team got their names on the trophy, a $15 gift certificate from Subway and the satisfaction of honing their skills to be the best lifeguard they can.