Residents and coaches urge Sullivan County Board to create middle‑school swim program

Supporters of a middle‑school swim program urged the Sullivan County Board of Education to add the sport to district offerings, saying a feeder program is needed to sustain high‑school teams and expand youth access to swimming.

At the public comment portion of the meeting, resident Roger Patches said he had provided the board with data showing substantial interest in competitive swimming across the region and asked the board to "approve this as a sport, a team, and ... ask[ed] for support." He cited high‑school rosters in surrounding systems and noted that some middle‑school programs operate by combining students from multiple schools and raising funds to rent lanes when a district pool is not available.

A student speaker described her experience with club swimming and told the board, "Swimming teaches me to be strong, work hard, and never give up." The board also heard from the high‑school swim coach at Westridge, who said the primary barrier to growing the sport at the high‑school level is the lack of a consistent middle‑school program to develop swimmers.

Speakers raised logistics the district would need to address—pool time, transportation, coaching stipends and equipment—but said examples in neighboring districts show models that rely on shared lanes, late‑afternoon practice and school‑ or community‑sponsored transportation. The public commenters asked the board to explore options and provide staff time to develop a proposal with cost estimates and recommended next steps.

Board members thanked the presenters and said they would review the materials and data submitted; no formal vote or action to create a program was recorded in the transcript. The board indicated it would consider follow‑up at future work sessions or during budgeting discussions.