Little urban swimmer gets ready for the Patriot Games Meet

Patriot Games swim meet hosted by Patriot Aquatic Club in Lincolnshire, Ill. 2013.

Swimmers competing at Patriot Games

Congratulations to all swimmers who competed this past weekend at the Patriot Games, hosted by the Patriot Aquatic Club in Lincolnshire, Ill. 2013

Ultimate Swimming coach Pierre Ruffin empowering black and Latino swimmers

“My coaches used to always tell us to remember that you were just as good as everybody else.”

Pierre Ruffin, head coach of Ultimate Swimming, a year-round competitive swim club in Hillside, Ill., described the challenges of being one of the few African-American coaches for Illinois Swimming. Back in the 1950s and 1960s when racial discrimination was the norm, Ruffin said athletes had to produce great results to prove they were just as good as a Caucasian athlete and coach.

Ruffin said he was often questioned at swim meets for why he was standing on the deck since only officials, coaches, athletes and volunteer timers were allowed on the deck.

“I could understand at the time because they didn’t realize or understand that there were black coaches or black coaches trying to get involved in the sport at that time,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin-- like the author of this blog, a club coach for Illinois Swimming said athletes are not special because of their race, ethnicity or gender, but because of their talent.

“The only special thing about you is your ability to swim like everybody else, your ability to work hard, your ability to be able to say, “Here I am. I can do this and get out and prove it” and that’s the only way I think you can really help minorities in this sport of swimming,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin said he hopes to pave a way for future coaches.

“When other minority coaches want to get involved with swimming, I feel that they will, because of what I’m able to do, it’ll make it easier for other people to give them an opportunity to coach and be a head coach and not feel that just because I’m a minority, I’m unable to do this or to do that or to train their kids and bring them to a level of excellent swimming,” Ruffin said.

Joliet Jets host Ghostly Gathering swim meet at UIC

Congrats to swimmers who competed at UIC during the Ghostly Gathering meet!

Academy Bullets host Speedo Fall Open swim meet

Chicago swimmer Rebeca Martinez qualifies for Junior Nationals and Speedo Sectionals

Rebeca Martinez, 17, swimming state qualifier who holds multiple state records and has qualified for the Junior National Meet, the Speedo Sectional Meet and State Championships.

During Junior Nationals, Martinez set a new team record in the 200 backstroke placing 53^rd. The 800 freestyle relay team of Martinez, Marysol Arce, Nikol Lagodzinska and Charlotte Rosenberg swam the first Chicago Wolfpack Aquatic Club (CWAC) relay at Junior Nationals finishing 41^st and setting a new team record. Martinez cut 2.5 seconds off her team record in the 400 individual medley finishing 54^th. The 400 freestyle relay team of Lagodzinska, Martinez, Natalie Tapia and Rosenberg finished 17th to mark the highest ever finish in team history and break the team record by more than 3 seconds.

Martinez is a senior at St. Ignatius College Prep where she holds multiple swimming records. For the 2012 season, she established five new records in the 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay.

Martinez grew up in Brighton Park, a Southwest Side Chicago neighborhood. She has been swimming for 12 years. She started swimming at Kelly High School with the Chicago Park District (CPD) when she was 5. Later at 9, she swam for the CPD Swim Club until she was 14. When Martinez began high school in 2010 at St. Ignatius, she joined CWAC, competing for them when she's not swimming for high school.

Martinez said swimming plays a big part in her life.

“After a stressful day at school, I look forward to swimming because I can calm down and it relaxes me and it makes me feel good,” Martinez said.

Martinez said her biggest accomplishment as an athlete was qualifying for the Junior National Meet, the Speedo Sectional Meet and State Championships. Martinez said she was surprised she qualified for those meets because she began the long course season late after playing water polo at St. Ignatius.

“Especially at State last year, I wasn’t expecting that at all but it was a big drop so I was just really happy about that, especially because it’s harder than ISI meets,” Martinez said.

Martinez said she still gets nervous during competitions and she mentally prepares each time.

“I think about the strokes, touching the wall and pushing off and after I’m done, looking up at the scoreboard and seeing the times,” Martinez said.

Masters and Swim Clubs in the City of Chicago

Click on a team's name to be directed to their website.

Club Swim Teams

• Chicago Latin Swim Club
• Chicago Park District
• Chicago South Swim Club
• Chicago Wolfpack Aquatic Club
• Iguanas Swim Club
• Midway Aquatics Club
• Northside Aquatics
• UIC Aquatics
• Whitney Young Aquatics

Masters Swim Teams

• Chicago Blue Dolphins 
• Chicago Masters
• Chicago Smelts
• Lakeshore SF Masters
• Max Multisport
• Mt. Greenwood Masters
• Westloop Athletic Club Masters

For more information about club swimming in Illinois, visit Illinois Swimming.

St. Ignatius swimming head coach David Stephens leads his teams to win IHSA Sectional Championships

The women’s team took first place in the 2012 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Sectional Championship for the eighth year running and eighth place in the IHSA State Championships last fall. The team set 11 new team records during the season. The men’s team set five new team records during their season in addition to winning the IHSA Sectional Championship for the tenth straight year.

Stephens says, “In my eleven years at St. Ignatius the program has had 80 state qualifiers for 344 events, 81 NISCA All-Americans, 277 sectional champions and 111 conference champions.”

David Stephens is the head swimming and diving coach of St. Ignatius College Prep. Stephens has been coaching the men and women’s varsity teams for 13 years.

Stephens grew up in Atlanta, Ga., where he started swimming at an early age with the Dynamo Swim Club. He was an All-American at Marist High School. Stephens attended the University of Michigan where he swam all four years.

Stephens lists some of the challenges he faces in his position as a high school coach to one of the top Catholic schools in Chicago: athletes without a strong swimming background, culturally-diverse athletes, and most of all, suburban high school swim teams including Loyola Academy, Fenwick High School and Rosary High School, which have more experienced swimmers, better facilities, and full time coaches.

“A lot of the kids who come here initially hadn’t had a swimming background, so we’re dealing with kids who are relatively new to the sport,” says Stephens. On the other hand, Stephens says the swimmers who have developed their swimming abilities at swim clubs and within the Chicago Park District have a stronger skill set.

“With the development of the club program here, other club programs and the Chicago Park District developing better swimmers, kids are coming in here with more background, so that’s helped us compete in a higher level with a lot of the suburban schools and other Catholic League schools,” Stephens says.

Stephens says he uses different approaches to coach the men’s and women’s teams. The women’s team can handle workouts and school work better than men’s team, says Stephens.

“A lot of the girls, they are usually tougher, they can handle more intensity and workload, but they also need more socialization time,” Stephens says.

Stephens says the men need less socialization time because they tend to be more competitive with one another.

Stephens says he realized he wanted to be a swim coach while attending the John Marshall Law School. He says he found he enjoyed coaching, working with the kids and creating meaningful relationships with them and their families much more than attending school.

“I enjoy law. I find it interesting. But I found that the relationships that I was having with the families and the kids here was much more meaningful and rewarding than what I was doing in law school,” Stephens says.

Stephens says one of his personal goals is to promote swimming. According to Stephens, the number of swimmers in Chicago is increasing, along with qualifying for state championship meets.

“Giving those kids in the city more recognition. It’s unfortunate that newspapers don’t give them publicity,” Stephens says.