DEKALB COUNTY SWIM TEAM

Developing Great Swimmers and Friendships

By: Stephen Haberkorn

eKalb County is lucky to have a great year-round competitive swim program that is affiliated with the Kishwaukee YMCA and the DeKalb Park District. The DeKalb County Swim Team (DCST) was started in 1980 when the YMCA team, the DeKalb Park District team and the Kishwaukee Country Club teams were combined. While many champion swimmers have trained with the DCST over the years, perhaps the best thing they have developed is a familyfriendly environment that has connected thousands of families and produced many lifelong friendships.

The DeKalb County Swim Team trains and competes primarily in the Bickner Aquatic Center in the Kishwaukee YMCA. The facility, which was built in 2000, contains an 8-lane, 25-yard competition pool with ample room for spectators. DCST currently has about 150 kids from all around DeKalb County and beyond, including swimmers from Dixon and Byron to St. Charles and Geneva, and from Caledonia and Marengo to Hinckley and Waterman. These young swimmers have an amazing level of commitment to their sport, with many of them training for hours every day.

One of the team’s most-successful swimmers currently is 11-year-old Gage

Helfrich of Dixon, who travels about an hour each way to get to the Kishwaukee YMCA for practices and competitions. Helfrich has won multiple age group state championships and hopes to swim in college after first breaking “all of the records on the board,” according to his father, Matt Helfrich. Despite the many hours of driving and practicing, Matt Helfrich believes it’s worth it. “[DCST] is a bigger team and he has kids pushing him and he pushes other kids,” said Helfrich. “I think he’s going to go somewhere, and he’s learning here. It’s just a great group of people, really... We’re very happy to be here.”

The team is led by senior coach, Matt Anderson, who returned to the program in 2017 after coaching at the collegiate level for over twenty years at NIU, Ohio State and Youngstown State. Anderson swam for DCST as a child and helped to build the club in the early 1990s as an assistant to now legendary former head coach and current YMCA Aquatics Director, Brian Bickner. After Bickner resigned as DCST head coach to spend more time with his family, he eventually reached out to his old friend, Anderson, to continue the tradition of excellence.

“As coaches, we try to develop them at a very young age to do everything correctly, so that over time it becomes something they do automatically without thinking about it,” said Anderson. “At the higher levels, you’re probably taking 5,000 strokes and doing 200 flip turns in a practice. Remembering to do each one of them correctly is a challenge. By the time they are older, if they’ve learned things right, it’s more about tweaking things.”

Anderson said the goal for their program is for swimmers to continue to improve and love the sport after they leave the team. “We don’t want them to get peaked out at this point,” said Anderson.

SUSTAINED SUCCESS The DeKalb County Swim Team has won many district and state titles over the years, including Boys State Championships in 2002, 2003, 2011, and 2014; Girls State Championships in 2007, 2009, and 2013; and an Overall State Championship in 2007. Most recently, the 21-and-under boys won the 2018 Long Course State Championship. DCST has also won ten Northwest District Combined championships. During the summer, DCST is affiliated with the DeKalb Park District and swims against 13 other community swim teams in the North Central Illinois Swim Conference (NCISC). They have won the NCISC sixteen times.

Nine-time IHSA State Champion and DCST alumna, Athena Ye of Sycamore, explained the formula for DCST’s consistent excellence. “The successes that my teammates and I achieved were not only because of what we did in the water, but the times when our coaches guided us, when our teammates raced us, and when our parents encouraged us,” said Ye. “Success is a group effort, even if the performance is individual.”

Ye, who swam for Rosary High School in Aurora and is currently a member of the Harvard University swim team, said that the coaches at DCST were some of the most encouraging and supportive people she’s ever met. DCST swimmers are fortunate to have a group of over 20 professional coaches helping them improve. Every one of the coaches has competitive swimming experience. The staff is made up of two full-time coaches, Anderson and Josh Norek, and about 20 senior and junior assistant coaches. The junior coaches include current DSCT high school-aged swimmers who work with the younger children.

Grace Flemming, 18, from DeKalb is in her 13th year swimming with DCST. After each of her last two seasons swimming for the DeKalb-Sycamore high school co-op team, she was named Daily Chronicle Girls Swimmer of the Year. She’s not sure yet where she wants to go to college next year,

but she would like to study biomedical engineering and then possibly go on to medical school. She has been coaching with DSCT for three years.

“I’ve really loved working with kids,” said Flemming. “I enjoy my job so much. The coaching even helps my own swimming, because as I’m coaching I’m seeing things these kids are doing and I think about it for myself and I’m like, ‘That’s what I should be doing.’” She hopes that she can continue to coach swimming when she’s done with school.

ELITE SWIMMERS Individual accolades have been numerous over the years for DCST swimmers. The team has had 16 National Champions, 43 National All-Americans, 105 National Qualifiers, and 186 Individual State Champions. DCST swimmers have held numerous state and national YMCA records, and 59 DCST alumni have gone on to receive college swimming scholarships at all levels. They have also had several kids go on to qualify for the U.S. Olympic time trials. “When you’re having those kinds of numbers, that filters down,” said Bickner. “Things like that help to grow the team and get people more interested.”

Several of the notable individual standouts over the years include: Mackenzie Powers, Sycamore, 3-time IHSA State Champion, swam for Penn State University; Emily Launer, DeKalb, 2-time YMCA National Champion, 9-time IHSA medalist, swam for Northwestern University; Grant Alef, Maple Park, 13-time YMCA State Champion, 33- time YMCA All-American, swam for University of Minnesota; Caitlynn Moon, DeKalb, 21- time YMCA All-American, held YMCA national record in the 800 freestyle, 1500 freestyle and 1650 freestyle, swam for Texas A&M; Daniel Hein, Sycamore, IHSA State Champion in 100 backstroke, 10-time IHSA State medalist, 5-time YMCA National Champion, set IHSA state record and YMCA national record in 100 backstroke, swimming for University of Missouri; and Athena Ye, Sycamore, IHSA State Champion in 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly, 15-time IHSA State Medalist, Illinois State Swimmer of the Year in 2019, swims for Harvard University.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY The swim team is made up of all different kinds of families, from all different backgrounds. The YMCA promotes the values of caring, honesty, and respect, and those are exhibited throughout the team, beginning with the coaches and the parents. Ultimately, despite all of the success that DSCT swimmers have achieved in the pool, what is perhaps most exceptional about the team is the family atmosphere that connects both the swimmers and their families. “A lot of people say the swim team is kind of like their second family,” said Bickner. He said that last spring they had a DCST reunion at Fatty’s in DeKalb that was attended by over 100 families. emotional support system can get a kid through the struggles.”

Gavin Anderson, a 1 7-yearold senior at Sycamore High School who was the 2019 Daily Chronicle Boys Swimmer of the Year, started swimming for DCST when he was eight. He said his best memory was going to nationals with three other guys on the team and doing everything together. “We were an extremely close group of guys,” said Anderson. He said the group stays in touch and even had a Friendsgiving and a Christmas party together last year.

Daniel Hein of Sycamore, who is a four-time All-American at the University of Missouri, swam with DCST for 11 years. “I don’t really remember all the practices we did, all the yards, specific times, specific meets, or anything like that,” said Hein. “But I do remember the friendships that I made and the family atmosphere.” He said the family environment he experienced with the DeKalb County Swim Team was one of the most important things he looked for during the recruiting process when he was selecting a college swimming program.

It’s not uncommon for kids to swim with DCST for 8-10 years and develop deep bonds with their peers. Beth Raetzke of Sycamore, whose daughter, Hannah, 13, swims on the team, said that those relationships help kids get through the times of discouragement. “If you’re focused in on friendships and being with people who you really like to be around, now you have something else to look forward to,” said Raetzke. “And that