By Kelsey Mitchell, Swimming World Intern.
After 60 years, the Lake Forest Swim Club still provides its members with a competitive, engaging and encouraging environment.
Founded in 1958, the Lake Forest Swim Club is celebrating its 60th birthday this year. Time may have changed the club’s appearance, but its core values have remained strong and steady. The team’s philosophy states: “We believe that the goal of any youth sports program should be developing the foundation and skills necessary for success as young athletes mature.”
Lake Forest Swim Club’s head coach since 1981, Maureen Sheehan, describes the team as “a small niche program that can help swimmers of all ability levels get to the highest performance levels that their commitment and talent allow.” This statement rings true, as many of their athletes go on to compete at the collegiate level.
Lynette Foss, the parent of one such collegiate swimmer, speaks of the tight bonds the Lake Forest Swim Club forms between its members: “LFSC had a very nice going away party for all of the graduating seniors last year – it was a large group, most of whom had been swimming together since they were in elementary school…. They all frequently get together socially and continue to swim with the club on their breaks from college.”
Photo Courtesy: Patti Rothwell, Lake Forest Swim Club
Along with developing lasting friendships, the Lake Forest Swim Club also aims to develop and encourage its athletes’ interests and goals. Sheehan shares her holistic coaching approach:
I want to help the swimmers I coach to become independent as athletes and young people. I want to help them develop a passion for pursuing personal excellence, fitness and health. I want them to use competition to help them learn more about themselves. If I can leave a stamp on any athlete, it is to find goals and dreams (in any life area) that they are passionate about, and to go after them with everything they’ve got.
Through the work Lake Forest Swim Club’s athletes put in at practice and meets, they achieve the collective goals of the team. The team offers seven different groups, each designed for different ages and skill levels. This setup allows for children to develop the skills needed to be successful in the sport at their own pace while also encouraging them to form bonds with their peers.
Photo Courtesy: Patti Rothwell, Lake Forest Swim Club
Sheehan coaches mostly high school and college-age athletes. Each swimmer tapers for the most competitive meet in which they have qualified for both long course and short course seasons. These meets are often on the regional, state, sectional, junior national and national levels.
The team was once home to seven olympic athletes including the United States’ Conor Dwyer (2008, 2012), Matt Grevers (2008, 2012), Eadie Wetzel (1968), Kathy Thomas Young (1968) and Sharon Wichman (1968), along with Puerto Rico’s Doug Lennox (2008) and Kristina Lennox (2008). Dwyer returned to Lake Forest, Ill., in 2012 to motivate and inspire team members. The Lake Forest Swim Club also sent athletes to the 2016 US Olympic Trials.
“Swimming is an excellent foundational sport for all children. There is no sport that safely or better works the aerobic system and full body muscular system in young children than swimming. It also develops mental traits like discipline, hard work and perseverance. Children never ‘ride the bench’ in practice or in competition and they get to focus on measurable self-improvement through personal time progression in meets,” Sheehan says.
Alongside Dwyer and Lennox in Lake Forest Swim Club’s history of swimming stars is founder Ray Essick, the first Executive Director of USA Swimming. Essick founded the club as a non-profit organization, and it remains so today.
Sheehan says, “There is no place better than the pool for young athletes to get away from all of the noise and social media blitz of the world. They can just put their face down in the water and get a great workout!”
Commentary: All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.
From the time I was swimming in the 60’s. Remember this club some of the photos in swimming world.
Erik C Winkler
Amazing memory, Elysia Moreland! That was the club that taught me so much 🙂
Doug’s older sister also swam in the Olympics, Kristina. There were four olympians.
Maureen and Michael–the two longtime coaches–they did so much for the LFSC kids, whether those swimmers were stars or not. (Neighbor boy Matt Grevers used to lie on our couch and watch “Saved by the Bell” with my kids before practices, FYI. And the Lenoxes were good friends!). All four of my swimming children were enriched in so many ways by LFSC. May this be the start of 60 more years!