Teens guarding waters
Published 2:24 pm Sunday, June 27, 2010
Summer jobs are usually a way for young people to earn some money for their time off of school like vacations or even saving up for college, but for some Atmore teens their summer job involves a lot of responsibility with several lives in their hands.
The lifeguards at the Tom Byrne Park pool spend their days during the summer months teaching swim lessons and watching over children who frequent the pool for a swim.
It’s an important job that includes making sure each and every child is safe in and out of the water.
Timothy Huber, in his third summer as a lifeguard, said he became a lifeguard because of his familiarity with the pool.
“I needed a summer job a few years ago, and I spent several years taking lessons and swimming, so I decided to become a lifeguard because I knew what I would be doing here,” Huber said.
A summer job was the same motivation for Charlie Hadley, who is a rookie lifeguard this summer.
For the first-year lifeguard, he said he has found a good job, but it comes with a lot of difficult territory.
Hadley said that learning all of the rules was something that took time.
“Learning the pool rules was probably the toughest thing for me,” Hadley said. “It took time to get them all down, but I finally got it.”
Another joy for the lifeguards is the chance they get to spend with the children who visit the pool for swim lessons or the public swim.
Hannah Ziglar, who is also in her first year as a lifeguard working along side her older sister Sarah, said seeing a child’s excitement at learning how to swim is her favorite part of her job.
“I love being around the kids,” Ziglar said. “When I’m teaching them swim lessons, and I see them learn something, it’s always a great feeling. They get so excited when you tell them that they did something the right way.”
Huber also enjoys being around the children at the pool.
For him though there is a different motivation that involves his future.
Huber said he would like to become a teacher, so being around children prepares him for that type of environment.
“I enjoy being a part of children’s lives,” Huber said. “I’m going to go into education, so it helps me prepare myself for that line of work.”
Aside from having the large responsibility of watching large amounts of children, the toughest thing the lifeguards at the Tom Byrne Park pool go through is their training.
Training to become a lifeguard includes endurance exercises, learning all of the proper swim strokes and how to save someone.
Emotions for the lifeguards are mixed on how they felt about their training.
For Ziglar, she said toughest part about training to be a lifeguard was the proper way to save someone.
“Understanding the correct way of saving a person was the most difficult aspect of training,” Ziglar said. “There are specific ways that things have to be done, and it’s can be tough to learn.”
Huber’s experience with training for his first year as a lifeguard was different than Ziglar’s.
Huber said he never had a problem with training and enjoyed all of the things that he learned.
“I enjoyed going through the training for my job,” Huber said. “I liked everything from the instructor I learned from to all of the strokes. It was great.”

Tom Byrne Park pool lifeguards pose for a picture on a diving board. Pictured, from left, Sheena-Marie Currie, Sarah Ziglar, Allie Brooks, Raylin Spence, Hannah Ziglar, Blake Presley, Charlie Hadley, Nick Thompson, Timothy Huber, Cameron Murphy and Christopher Huber. | Photo by Chandler Myers