by Donna Lampkin Stephens

For more than a generation, young people in the 501 have perfected their swimming strokes with the AquaKids in Conway.
And in 2009, the only things that have changed are a new facility — Hendrix College’s Wellness and Athletic Center — and greater interest.

“Our numbers have been great just because of the Olympics last summer,” said Evan Johnston, head coach of the AquaKids since 1997 and also registration chair for Arkansas swimming. “Our numbers bounced. We’re probably sitting about as well as we have been in quite a while. A lot of that is due to the facility we have now. We can be a little more flexible in scheduling. When we had the old pool, we couldn’t be as flexible. We had the pool at certain hours.”
The AquaKids are a year-round United States Swimming competitive team for novice to experienced swimmers. The most famous alumnus is John Hargis, gold medalist on the 1996 United States Olympic Team.
The late Dr. Bob Courtway started the AquaKids in 1961 when he and his family moved to Conway when he joined the Hendrix faculty. His son, Tom, most recently the interim president of the University of Central Arkansas, was one of the charter members of what was Conway’s first competitive swim team.
For this summer, Johnston said the roster included about 120 kids, including satellite swimmers from Mountain Home to Texarkana who register with the team and join the group for meets.
Typically, he said, the summer numbers dip a bit to accommodate things such as family vacations and church camps, but during the school year, the numbers rise.
According to the web site www.aquakidsswimteam.com, the AquaKids offer “training and practice groups for swimmers of all ages and ability levels.” Swimmers are divided into teams by ability and commitment level.
Johnston said the AquaKids’ Developmental Team is divided into four groups, from beginners all the way up to more advanced development. The next step is the Orange Team, which works on stroke mechanics during its three-times-a-week workouts.
The Black Team, Johnston said, is “a little more versed in competition and commitment.” Those swimmers have seven opportunities to practice a week. The Senior Team, the highest level, is a “full-fledged training group” that practices seven or eight times a week.
AquaKids from all groups have the option of swimming competitively.
“It’s strictly based on the family’s wants and desires,” Johnston said. “We have some that are very competitive and some that are not competitive at all.”
Briana Budnick, 11, a sixth-grader at Simon Elementary in Conway, is in her second year with the AquaKids. She’s on the Orange Team, but Johnston said he’d been thinking about moving her up to the next group.
“She’s really enjoying herself, and she’s definitely improving,” he said.
Budnick, the daughter of Thomas and Wendy Budnick, said she “kind of knew how to swim, but not the right way” when she joined the AquaKids’ Developmental Team last year. Besides the improvement in her strokes, she’s also expanded her social circle.
“I’ve made a lot of friends,” she said. “There were not very many that I already knew when I joined.”
She said her best stroke is the freestyle. “I don’t like backstroke at all,” she said. “I’m a lot stronger now.”
The AquaKids practice year-round, with seasons from September through March and April through August with two weeks off in August and March to recoup.
Swim lessons start for children at age 4. Johnston said they’ve found that generally, children are physiologically ready for the AquaKids experience at about 7.
“We have taken kids at 5 or 6,” he said. “We can do an evaluation.”
He said there are lots of reasons to get children involved in swimming.
“Just the ability to manage their time a little bit,” Johnston said. “We find that kids who are actively involved in a sport like swimming or anything else have better time-management skills. Life-long fitness is another thing. It’s a sport kids learn at a young age and can do for the rest of their lives.”
He said many AquaKids go on to compete in triathlons, and others use swimming for cross-training with basketball or football.
“We have parents tell us their kids are running circles around their teammates,” he said. “You swim three miles in practice and you’re playing another sport, and you’re in better physical shape.”
Besides Johnston, the coaching staff includes Herb Brill and Sarah Christie.
“Herb is really the technician,” Johnston said. “Sarah works with our developmental groups, and two of my senior swimmers help out with the young kids, too. We’ve got a nice collection of folks helping us. They’re doing a good job, and that’s what keeps parents interested.”
A board of directors, composed mainly of parents, guides the program.
“We have some very talented kids swimming now,” Johnston said. “It’s tough to keep girls in the sport. They get to be 15, and they all want to go drive and see boys, and boys tend to drop at 12. Some of them think, ‘I want to get a more manly sport,’ not thinking that swimming is manly.
“We’re really blessed right now with some really good kids who are committed, and we’ve got some kids who aren’t as committed, and that’s OK, too. We’ve got great parents who are actively involved in the program and a great board of directors.”
For more information about the AquaKids, contact Johnson at 501.269.7946 or through the web site at www.aquakidsswimteam.com.

 AquaKids philosophy

“A well-defined, long-term approach of gradually increasing degrees of commitment is essential to reach peak performance levels during a swimmer’s physiological prime. The emphasis in the early stages of participation must be placed on developing technical skills and a love for the sport. In later years, a more demanding physical and psychological challenge must be introduced to the training program. In this respect, ‘too much too soon’ is more often the cause of failure to achieve maximum potential in senior swimming than in the reverse situation”