| KERNERSVILLE - Three years ago, former swimmers Jay
Dodson and Chris Compton decided they wanted to start a new swim club for
the Triad, a club with hundreds of members that could compete against North
Carolina's largest swim club, Mecklenberg Aquatic Club.
It seemed like a good idea, but Dodson and Compton knew
they needed water for their idea to float.
After three years of searching, they found First Christian
Church in Kernersville, which recently built a five-lane, 25-meter pool.
While the pool isn't large enough to accommodate the several hundred
swimmers the duo dream of, it is a good place to start.
Once the pool was secured, Dodson and Compton had two more
tasks: Find a name and find swimmers. They really liked the way that STAR
sounded, but couldn't think of anything for it to stand for. They decided to
go with it anyway. "It doesn't have to mean anything," Compton said. "It's
kind of what all kids want to be when they grow up - they want to be a
star."
With a name and a pool, STAR Aquatics was ready for
action. Dodson and Compton found 70 swimmers in the Triad to begin practice
last August. Throughout the year, interest grew, and the founders of the
team found themselves putting together a waiting list of swimmers who wanted
to join STAR. They also increased the number of coaches on staff to 15.
Paige Hannah, 15, joined STAR after swimming for Dodson
and Compton in a summer league. "It was a team that was started by my summer
coaches, and I had been wanting to get into a year-round program, but I
didn't know which one to go into. So I knew what kind of program my coaches
already ran, so I figured I'd give it a try."
Chase Rumley, a 16-year-old who has been swimming for five
years, also joined STAR after swimming in a summer league with Compton and
Dodson and swam year-round for another team.
"Some swim teams are really Nazi-ish about swimming," he
said. "But Chris and Jay encourage you to do other after-school activities
and do good in school and get good grades. They make sure you put academics
first. So it's a pretty easy-going atmosphere."
Paige said the move from her summer league to a year-round
league was a little frightening: "At first I was a little intimidated
because I'd heard that the year-round program can be really tough. But
there's a lot of different levels of programs, so if you feel like you're
not being challenged enough, you can always move up.
"I thought it was great. We had a lot of really good
swimmers. I think it's just been a really good program. We've had a lot of
people doing really well in big meets. It's run really smooth, and it's just
been a great program overall."
Compton was thrilled with the turn-out of swimmers: "I
just think that our biggest accomplishment was to have so many kids. Not
only did we fill up, but we had a waiting list all year. The waiting list is
a good problem."
With added swimmers, Compton and Dodson also found new
venues at which to swim. In addition to the Kernersville site, STAR gained
use of the Guilford College and the Pyramids pools in Greensboro,
Sportscenter of the Triad in High Point and the Burlington Aquatic Center.
More than 125 swimmers have signed up, and the coaches are hoping to make it
even with 200 before they dive into the season.
"It took three years to find one facility," Compton said.
"Now we have unlimited pool time at several locations. We're very excited
about growing and becoming the most dominant team in the Triad. We kind of
feel like over the last 15 years, swimming in the Triad has gone downhill
because other areas have done what we're doing with combining a bunch of
little areas into one large team. It's much easier to dominate when you have
300 hundred kids instead of just 80 kids.
"At all of our sites, we have a main coach and close to
nine assistants. What we're going to do is periodically rotate among sites,
so all the kids know all the coaches.
"We're trying to do it right and make it right for the
kids. Our main concern is are the kids happy and are the kids improving."
Dodson is excited that his team is growing so quickly: "We
were thinking it would take a few years to get here, we never thought it
would happen so fast. Now our goal is just to be the largest and best team
in the Triad."
Contact Lillian Govus at 412-5929 or
lgovus@news-record.com |
