East Texas Masters Swimming
By Erik Cozadd
In May of 2007 I was fortunate enough to inherit the East Texas Masters Swim Team (ETEX). At the time ETEX was small group of devoted swimmers that had been hanging on by only four members willing to swim at the crack of dawn at the Boys & Girls Club of Nacogdoches. When I came into the picture I had no experience with masters swimming and no real understanding of what United States Masters Swimming or Gulf Masters Swimming was all about.
As a brand new aquatics director I had my sights set on opening our new Lufkin Swim Center facility and to help promote the new and existing aquatics programs that these two pools offers. Little did I know how each program could help build each other, Swim lessons to USA swimming to Masters Swimming to Water Aerobics.
For the younger swimmers this sport helps their maturity and for the older swimmers it’s the fountain of youth. It’s been said that swimming is a “Lifetime Sport” which is true. At masters meets you can see youth swimming alongside the older age groups in the same events.
Although ETEX is still a small team and may go unnoticed at most meets I feel like we are a testament to how adult swimming and competition can thrive in any location. If we can support teams this far into east Texas then teams can be established in any community.
One of the neatest things I learned about the masters members over the past few seasons is that everyone can come to the pool with a different motivation for swimming, whether its daily exercise, triathlon training, or drive for competition; we all come together to help support each other in a great sport. I’ve enjoyed getting to know each member and walk of life.
I would be remiss not to have mentioned the Gulf Local Swim Committee because they are integral in the success I’ve seen in our program. We are very fortunate to have such an active group of dedicated members on the Gulf Committee. Each member brings a unique experience and enthusiasm to our sport. It was recently reported that the Gulf LSC has broken the 1,000-membership barrier and is ranked 13th nationally, and still growing.