The Delavan Community Swim Team (DCST) was a seasonal recreational swim team in Delavan,
Wisconsin, which served as a place for young swimmers to learn basic skills and to compete at a local level.
This served as a feeder program for the Delavan-Darien High School program for about 30 years. Swimmers of all
ages would practice 2-3 times/week for 1-1.5 hours at a time.
In the summer of 2004, the DCST experimented with an “advanced” group. This group, proposed by assistant
coach Jeremy Meserole, would practice 5 times/week for 2.5 hours/practice. High-school swimmers were invited to
join this group, as well as exceptional upper elementary school and middle school swimmers. The group was a huge
success, bringing in over 20 swimmers who all dropped tremendous amounts of time.
Building on that success, the DCST decided to take the next step and expand the “advanced” group to the entire
team, and renaming our club the South Central Swim Team (SCST). This team was to be dedicated to providing
competitive swimming opportunities to South Central Wisconsin youth.
The SCST held its first practice on September 7th, 2004 at Delavan-Darien High School under the direction of
new head coach Jeremy Meserole. The fall was to be one of great change, as the team saw a drop in numbers, but
huge gains in performance.
The SCST took its success to Janesville, where it held its first practice on December 13th, 2004. The
Janesville half of our team started out to be primarily high school swimmers, while the Delavan half continued to
be primarily 10 and unders.
Through successful marketing and word of mouth, the SCST has since grown to over 80 swimmers (we hosted 86
swimmers in the summer of 2006) and we’re still growing! Swimmers ages six and up are offered structured practices,
stroke mechanics, and an opportunity to compete on and individual and team basis at local, regional, state,
sectional, and national levels.
In April of 2007, the SCST became a club member of USA-Swimming (USA-S), the governing body for swimming in the
United States, and one of the largest guided fitness activities for children (246,326 year-round individual members
in 2006 with thousands more seasonal members). USA-Swimming consists of close to 2,800 club members with approximately
11,000 registered coaches.
USA-Swimming is comprised of different Local Swim Committees (LSCs), who’s job it is to govern swimming at a local
level. Wisconsin Swimming is the LSC of which the SCST is a part. Wisconsin Swimming governs weekly competitions during
the swim season, which ends with a state meet.
All LSCs are a part of a Zone, who hold sectional and zone meets at the end of each season. Wisconsin Swimming is a
member of the Central Zone, which is also comprised of the Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Lake Erie, Michigan,
Midwestern, Minnesota, Missouri Valley, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ozark, and South Dakota LSCs.
While we offer successful programs to swimmers who have qualified for state, sectional, and zone meets, we haven’t
forgotten our roots as a community based team. We still offer a team to those who want to swim, but don’t want to get
caught up with the expenses and time commitment that USA-Swimming takes. This novice team has opportunities to swim meets
against local teams, such as Milton, Elkhorn, Edgerton, etc. at a lower cost.
It is through the programs listed above that the SCST is proud to say that we have Something for Everyone!
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