Glenbard schools to start girls swimming co-ops

Swimmers at all four Glenbard high schools will at long last have a team to call their own - sort of.

At a meeting Monday, Glenbard High School District 87 officials gave the green light to the create the Glenbard West/South Girls Swimming Cooperative, which will compete in the West Suburban Conference. The move comes about three months after creation of a similar team that will pull athletes from North and East.

B.R. Ryall YMCA swim coach Chris Flamion will head the team and be paid $5,000 for the period from Aug. 16 to Nov. 20. District rules require a new sports program be funded completely by parents for five years before the district will get involved financially, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Rod Molek said.

"If the program shows it can sustain itself, then the board will take a look at it," he said. "It would still have to go through board analysis and we'd have to look at, long-term, can we afford this?"

Molek said one factor that ultimately could work against the sport is the absence of a pool run by the school, meaning the district must pay for rentals and transportation.

Although the parents' proposal listed Lifestart Wellness Center in Oakbrook Terrace as the team's practice pool, tryouts will be from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the Butterfield Park District facility, 21W730 Butterfield Road, Lombard.

The establishment of the teams ends a long saga that Glenbard West parent Gina Walch said began as far back as 2004, when she first looked into bringing a program to the schools. With children approaching high school age, Walch said they wanted to give club and park district swimmers options to continue in the sport through high school.

That quest appeared to be over last year, when the school board approved a four-team co-op that began competing as an independent in September. However, when it came time to figure out the team's seeding for sectionals, it was discovered the paperwork with the Illinois High School Association was incomplete.

But the success the parents had realized made them push forward hoping to finally get the teams together. In March, the board approved a plan that created two separate co-ops.

"We got so close, it seemed silly to just give up," Walch said.

Walch said the whole process has been a learning experience as the group has had to develop swimsuits, color schemes and has even talked briefly about a permanent name for the team.

After the North/East co-op received the OK in May, Walch put together a West/South proposal the board approved Monday. The team's first meet will be Sept. 2 at DeKalb High School.

The North/East co-op begins practice Aug. 16 at L.A. Fitness in Naperville, 1836 Freedom Drive, and will compete in the DuPage Valley Conference.