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The Summer Swim ‘Family’: Central PA Swim League Kids, Parents and Coaches Love the Competitions and the Fun

For swimmers in Central Pennsylvania Swim League, sitting poolside in the summer means much more than a quick dip to cool off in the sweltering heat.

Consisting of the active Welch, Park Forest, Science Park Recreation Association and Penns Valley teams, the league has provided local families with engaging, competitive summer swimming opportunities since the 1970s.

Each team welcomes competitive swimmers from ages 4 to 18. The season begins after the school year ends in June and runs through July. Each team participates in a dual meet every Thursday, with teams meeting each other twice during the season—once as the home team and once as the away team. Regular meets occur over a six-week timeframe, with a championship meet the last week of July. At meets and the championship, swimmers compete in one of six age groups: 6 and under, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18. All swimmers are eligible to swim at all meets, including the championship.

“The league is structured to encourage new and year-round swimmers to participate,” says Marion Ulmer, coach of the Welch Sharks. “Although there is competition, it’s not limited to elite athletes.”

Ulmer shares that CPSL knew about her before she knew about it—her father, Joseph Wakeley, Jr., started the Welch team in the ’70s, and her four older brothers swam and coached at Welch over the years.

Joe Wakeley Jr. and the 1973 Welch Pool swim team (Photo courtesy of Marion Ulmer)

“I was born in the summer, and my parents told me that an announcement was made at a Welch swim meet that the Wakeleys finally had a girl!” she says.

Ulmer went on to join the Welch Sharks as soon as she could, around four or five. She continued to swim throughout her childhood and became a coach at Welch for three years during college summers. After graduating college, Ulmer and her husband, Dave, moved to the Philadelphia area but eventually returned to State College. In 2015, she began coaching at Welch again, and has been coaching ever since. Continuing the family swimming affair at Welch, Ulmer’s five children swim as Sharks, with one serving as both a swimmer and a coach.

“Swimming can be an all-consuming sport for athletes who choose it as their primary sport. For these athletes, summer swim team provides an opportunity to have fun and compete against their friends, some of the same teammates they have during the winter months,” Ulmer says. “Summer league swimming provides an outlet to keep swimming but have a lot of fun at the same time.”

Ulmer explains how involvement in the swimming league helps provide swimmers with much more than an opportunity to swim.

“[The children benefit through] structured summertime activity where they get to learn and grow, access to opportunity to try swimming for less experienced swimmers, and an opportunity for competitive swimmers to have some fun with their sport, and being part of a ‘family’ during the summer,” she says.

Kate Woodruff and her husband, Matt, view the league as fun and competitive, with some intense but friendly rivalries between the teams. As the Welch parent representatives for the 2022 summer, they aid parents and coaches during the season and help coordinate events and volunteers. Their oldest, Ellen, began swimming for Welch when she was six. Now eleven, Ellen is joined by her three sisters: Anna, nine; Lucy, nine; and Fiona, seven.

“Summer swim team is something we look forward to every summer. I love that we have practice daily because it gives my kids a nice start to the day and a good schedule,” Woodruff says. “Practices are fun, and they always get a good workout.”

Though practices across the teams may vary slightly, they generally include warm-up activities, dry-land drills to build strength and endurance, and swimming drills in the pool. Practices often include skill-focused efforts such as diving, turns, breathing techniques and specific stroke and kick drills.

“The swimmers arrive a few minutes before practice starts to get their swim cap on, goggles ready and say their morning hellos to their friends,” says Hollie Meyer, a SPRA parent rep. Meyer’s son, Harrison, 11, joined the team when the family moved to the area in 2017.

Meyer explains that once SPRA swimmers are in the pool, they complete their warm-ups and then work directly with coaches on the skill-focused drills of the day.

Swimmers then apply the skills they’ve learned at practice to compete in their meets. According to Stacey Taylor, a Park Forest Bullfrogs parent rep, meets between teams include dozens of events. She explains that each swimmer can swim in three individual events and one relay or two individual events and two relays at a meet. Individual events are freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and individual medley, where swimmers perform each of the four strokes in a single race. Relays may be freestyle relay or medley relay.

Taylor’s daughter, Paisley, began swimming for the Bullfrogs at age five. Now fourteen, Paisley also aids coaches during practice—with an eventual goal of becoming a coach and then head coach for Park Forest. Not far behind Paisley is her brother, Niko, who has the same coaching goals.

“My kids have both done year-round swimming and say that summer is by far their favorite,” Taylor says. “Part of it is that they have a love for their summer swim coaches, who are almost always former Bullfrog swimmers. Summer swim is competitive, but it’s only as competitive as the swimmer makes it. Plus, every so often, there is a special team day or event, and every meet night is like one giant summer reunion with awesome food!”

(Photo by David Silber)

These special team days add to the family atmosphere created by the CPSL. Swimmers and their families get together out of the pool for activities such as tie-dye days, donut days, and movie nights. This year, the SPRA team will pack Jared Boxes in between practices, Park Forest will host a pasta night and Welch will go to DelGrosso’s Amusement Park.

Danielle Trego, a SPRA parent rep and mother of swimmers Natalie, 12, and Joey, 9, shares that in addition to the special event days, parent reps and volunteers help support another important aspect of the swim teams—the meet concessions.

“The concession stand provides the funding to pay our coaches and purchase supplies for the team and team spirit events,” she says.

Ulmer explains that without team parent reps like Woodruff, Meyer, Trego and Taylor to help coordinate and volunteer for the special events and meets, the league wouldn’t have remained as successful as it continues to be.

“Swimming is unique because it requires a lot of volunteers for each meet,” Ulmer says. “Many sports do not require more than a handful of volunteers to help coach and score. At a swim meet, we need 40+ volunteers at a time to make everything run smoothly. This is part of what makes swimming an entire family event.”

Woodruff, who grew up swimming on a summer swim team outside of Philadelphia, says her family knows that as soon as CPSL starts, they will see their swim team friends who have become more like family.

“[The top three benefits of swim team are] friendship, building confidence and having fun,” she says. “Our community loves the openness of summer swim team—anyone can join and have a great summer on one of the local teams. Kids grow into such strong swimmers throughout the summer, and parents love hanging out and socializing, too. The goal of each summer swim team is to help kids love to swim. It is so important and special for our community.”

Taylor echoes similar benefits for her children and family, highlighting the camaraderie of swim teams.

“I feel like our swim league has continued to be so successful and such an important part of the community for so long because summer swim, at least from my point of view, is a true intersection of kids from every sport and activity. You don’t have to be a year-round swimmer to enjoy it and to grow from it,” Taylor says. “We have year-round swimmers, but we also have swimmers who are soccer players and dancers, football players and baseball players, golfers, and theatrical arts kids. They are all swimming and meeting new people they will see almost every day for about two months.”

Like many other kids in CPSL, Kristen Laskowski’s sons joined the league in elementary school. Her oldest, Marshall, 11, began swimming with SPRA after first grade.

“He loved it so much that his younger brother could not wait to become a part of the team,” says Laskowski, a SPRA parent rep. “He [Miles, 9] joined after kindergarten. [The kids] see the close relationships between the coaches and how they encourage and get to know younger swimmers, and they want to be part of that.”

For Ulmer, the memories created through swim team over the years as a swimmer, parent, and coach last well beyond the summer season.

“I’m honored to coach a team that has meant so much to me and my family throughout the years,” she says. “From our swimmers and our parents to our volunteers and our coaches, we have created a community that leaves a lasting impression on our swimmers and their families. I love running into my swimmers throughout the year and talking about their memories from last season and getting them excited about what we’re going to do next season.” T&G

Samantha Chavanic is a freelance writer for Town&Gown. This story appears in the August 2022 issue.