Posted: Thursday, July 19, 2012 4:00 pm
Dick Vogel can only grimace when he thinks what swimming in Beloit was like back in the early 2000s.
It was a time when swimmers were few and far between, almost non-existent in the Stateline.
“I remember those times,” said Vogel before pausing. “They weren’t good. I didn’t know if swimming was going to survive in Beloit. It didn’t look too good.”
But the view is much better these days.
And a lot of that stems from the creation of the Krueger Summer Swim Team back in 2006.
There were only 20 participants in the program’s inaugural year. But now the program is thriving with more than 170 participants in its sixth year.
There’s no doubt there’s been a shift in enthusiasm for swimming in the Stateline. There was no better evidence of that then during Wednesday’s practice when the Krueger pool area was almost full.
“We’re finally at a good point,” said Vogel, who is also the swimming coach for the Beloit Purple Tide boys team. “It’s getting crowded around here, but we’ll never turn anyone away. We want this to keep growing and growing. We’re starting to finally open up some eyes around here.”
The eyes got even bigger after the district approved a referendum in the winter that would help fund the building of a new pool slated to break ground in August.
There wasn’t even a thought of such a proposal six years ago.
“That just shows you how much things are changing and how people feel about swimming,” Vogel said.
A lot of the excitement stemmed from the middle schools creating a team in 2002.
Since then, residents in the Stateline have slowly made their way back to the pool.
“Swimming was dying around the community,” Vogel said. “I don’t want to knock the (Beloit Aquatic Team), but a lot of their swimmers are Illinois residents. A lot of people in Beloit weren’t swimming, which was bad for the middle school and high school teams.”
That’s why Vogel wanted to find a program that helped swimmers stay active during the summer.
What he found was the Krueger Swim Team.
But matters didn’t start smoothly.
So, Vogel and his staff had to get out and recruit.
And recruit. And recruit.
“The first thing we had to do was make swimming affordable,” Vogel said. “Then, we wanted to make it a community-based program. Once we figured those things out, then we went out and recruited really, really hard. It took a lot of work, but we’re finally getting to where we want to be.”
The cost to join the club is $80 for children 10-and-under and $90 for everyone else.
The program has five different classes, ranging from 8-under to 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-and-over. The program is 9:30-10:30 a.m. Monday-Friday.
The numbers have also rose in the 8-under group with 40 kids signed up for this year’s program.
“It helps for everything,” said Andre DeKok, who co-coaches the program along with Vogel. “Sharpness, endurance, flexibility and speed.”
There’s also yoga and P90X classes before swimming practice, taught by volunteer coaches.
The club is open to any swimmer, no matter the age. Besides participants from Beloit, the club also includes swimmers from South Beloit, Clinton, Rockton and Roscoe.
“The whole intent of the club is to be mostly Beloit-based,” Vogel said. “We’ll take anyone we can get, but we’d love it if our middle school and high school students to came out and gave it a try. Usually, when they do that, they stick with us.”
One example was Londell and Ledell Bland.
After failing to make the Beloit Memorial boys basketball team, the brothers jumped in the pool.
They haven’t gotten out since.
“You know, everyone thinks they’re Basketball Jones, but they try out and realize maybe they’re not suited for basketball,” Vogel said. “We want those kids to think of us. Any time they want to change sports and start swimming, we’ll always be an available option.”
The Krueger Swim Team competes in three meets during the summer. They’ll host a meet at Krueger Pool next week when they participate in the McGuire Dual Meet.
With the new pool set to be installed this year, Vogel also wants to host a couple of middle school boys and girls meets.
That statement seemed impossible six years ago.
But impossible is turning into possible.
“Swimming is becoming cool again,” Vogel said.
Noa Levy
DeKok and Vogel
Great article!!
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