Swimming: St Charles North athletes enjoy their role as summer instructors
As a youngster growing up in Algonquin, my mother enrolled me in swimming lessons at the local pool.
Those didn't go so well. A combination of a gruff instructor and her insistence that we climb up on a rather large diving board (picture the one in that Rodney Dangerfield movie) and jump into the water below didn't sit well with this, at the time, 7-year-old kid.
Thus, I never learned how to swim.
Until nearly three decades later when I took adult swim lessons at a YMCA near my home.
It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not only did I learn a valuable life safety skill, but I now can partake in a variety of water-related activities because I have the bare-bones basics of swimming down.
I will never forget the sense of accomplishment during those lessons when I first ventured into the deep end of the pool and then when I completed a full lap of swimming for the first time.
At St. Charles North High School, swimming coach Rob Rooney and the North Star swimmers are providing local youngsters with the opportunity to experience that same exhilaration I did while learning an important skill.
Since 2003, Rooney has been offering swimming lessons during the summer to local youngsters at the North pool.
"When the pool first opened we were looking to fill the time in the facility," said Rooney, the aquatics director at the school who previously was a coach in the swimming program at what is now known as St. Charles East. "With the blessing of the school district and the administration we got it started. The school district has been awesome to us and they've made sure we are able to run the program the right way so kids have the opportunity to learn how to swim."
Rooney estimates some 600 kids go through the program throughout a given summer and kids in the program taking lessons range from as young as three to as old as right before high school.
"A lot of these kids are just starting out and they want to be safe in the water and want to learn the skills necessary to enjoy any body of water they get into," he said.
Rooney, who has been at St. Charles North since the doors opened in 2000, noted the majority of the kids in the program reside within local district boundaries, but some do come from outside St. Charles.
"We work with the school district to make sure we are meeting the needs of other surrounding communities," he said. "Our goal is to take care of all sides of town regardless of what high school they are going to. We want kids to have the opportunity to learn to swim. That's our goal and that's why we set this up."
The cool part of the equation here is Rooney hires swimmers in the St. Charles North program and individuals who are back from college for the summer to teach the lessons. His employee roster each summer typically runs in the 30-40 range.
"It's a summer job for them and we do pay them very well," said Rooney. "I want them to have a summer job that fits in with their schedule, their own training and personal goals."
For St. Charles North senior standout Samantha Sauer, working as a swimming instructor in the summer was a no-brainier.
"I love being around kids," said Sauer, a member of the 2015 St. Charles North team that placed third in the state (she took 7th in the state in the 100 and was part of 3 Top-5-in-the-state relay teams).
"I have the opportunity to teach them something I love. Seeing the kids progress as swimmers is supercool. It's such a great feeling helping them. This is something they most likely will carry on the rest of their lives."
Sauer, who will swim for the University of Iowa next season, recalls the first time she gave a lesson. "I was very nervous and scared I would mess up," she said. "I was worried I would teach something wrong or that the kids wouldn't like me. You learn and the kids adjust quickly. Even if they are scared of the water, you learn how to help them. I've had a great time doing this. I'm doing something for the kids and for the community."
Grace Samuelson, who will continue her swimming career at the College of Charleston (S.C.) and also was part of the third-place North Stars team this past fall, has been giving lessons since the summer before her freshman year.
"It was intimidating the first time," she said. "You have parents there watching you with their children. I was a little nervous at first, but I really love working with kids and teaching them new things. The kids get a lot out of it and I get a lot out of it. The kids are learning how to swim and that will help them in the future and it's definitely helped me to focus on my own swimming technique. If you are trying to correct a kid, you should be teaching them something you are doing properly."
One of the big thrills for Rooney is to see kids who have taken lessons come out for the North swim teams (Rooney is the head coach for both the boys' and girls' programs) or the St. Charles Swim Club (the local club swimming organization). Sauer has seen some of her students advance to the North swim teams and the St. Charles Swim Club.
"It helps with having a bigger base within the aquatics community," said Rooney. "You have the high school swim teams in the district, the water polo teams and the swim club. We have kids who start out in lessons and go on to swim competitively in high school and want to be part of a team."
Rooney said the program has been successful over the years because of the relationships the coaches create with their students.
"There's that excitement when a young kids sees a high school kid helping them," he said. "Our instructors embrace the children and the parents. They love being in the water and they love being around the kids. Everybody is having fun."
And more importantly, thousands of children over the years have been given the keys to unlock a critical life safety skill that will be available to them for the rest of their lives.
Mike Miazga has been writing about sports in the Fox Valley for more than two decades. Email him at mjm890@gmail.com.