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Sports

Gwinnett Swim League Provides Healthy Summer Fun for Children, Parents

It's a family affair as children and parents participate in summer swim league at pools in Snellville and throughout the county.

If it’s Thursday and it’s summer, chances are there’s a swim meet in town. Last week, in an evening meet held at the club. And it's a family affair.

Lisa Stueve, the principal of North Springs Charter High School in Fulton County and a former Gwinnett County educator for 14 years, serves as a stroke and turn judge during the meets. She makes sure “swimmers use the proper strokes and turn correctly” in her volunteer job for the Breeze swim team.

Her daughter, Madison, now 16, started swimming in second grade so Stueve has been volunteering for nine years. “It’s a family activity,” she said.

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When the Stueves first moved to the community, Madison was in private school, Lisa Stueve said.

“It was how she got to know the neighborhood kids – they’re all here ... It gives her a purpose and a reason to wake up in the morning. It keeps her summer organized and involved,” she explained.

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Fourteen-year-old CJ Rousseau works as a junior assistant coach for the Summit Chase Sharks. He helps ensure that swimmers are in their correct positions before races. CJ swims year round at the club through Summit Swimming, in addition to swimming for

“My mom got me into swimming when I was little. A lot of athletes have a natural sport, and this is mine,” CJ said. “I have a lot of fun with it, and I’m good at it,” he added.

Triplets MacKenzie, Brittany and Tayler Tuttle, rising 10th graders at Providence Christian Academy in Lilburn, all swim for the Bright Water Breeze, and they each have their specialties. There’s friendly competition among the sisters. Brittany beats her sisters at freestyle and backstroke, while MacKenzie wins at butterfly and individual medley. Tayler is the best breast stroker among her sisters.

All the sisters agree that swim team is fun and keeps them conditioned for other sports. Mom Cindy Tuttle enjoys the sport because “there’s not so much pressure” as in the other sports the girls participate in. She also likes that their 9:45 a.m. start time “gives them a reason not to sleep all day.”

She added, “It’s more about being with friends. It doesn’t matter how good the kids are. Everybody always encourages them and makes them feel like part of the team."

Chuck Bauer, a Delta aircraft maintenance instructor and swim team volunteer, has been involved with the Gwinnett Swim League for 19 years. He first worked with the Eastmont Cove Swim Team and then with the Summit Chase team. He serves as a stroke and turn judge and as a starter, though his youngest child, Emily, “bowed out beyond the 12th hour” this year, preferring tennis to swimming.

Bauer's son, Chris, has coached the Summit Chase team and was a year-round swimmer after first attempting the sport through the summer swim league.

“We have friends forever from Chris swimming year round,” he said. "(The experience) gave Chris a great work ethic and provided a place to take out his frustrations. Not every kid can do two hours in the pool."

Terilyn Clay, a swim team volunteer for the past 12 years, serves as the primary council member on the Gwinnett Swim League representing the Bright Water Breeze. She is proud that the Breeze has won the Margaret Gilbert Sportsmanship Award for the South Central division which is made up of nine teams.

“Each team votes for the team they have most enjoyed swimming,” she explained. “It means more to us than our win/loss record,” she said.

The Gwinnett Swim League is made up of 45 teams. With the end of the swim season rapidly approaching, swimmers are checking their times to see if they’ve earned a spot at the county swim meet to be held at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center July 16 – 17.

"(Swimming) is what happens in Gwinnett County in the summer,” Clay said. “Everything shuts down on Thursday night. Everybody’s swimming.”

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