Monday, June 28, 2021
NSEA Sea Devils Embrace Diversity and Community Solidarity Through its Outreach and Rising Team
For the Northside Elite Aquatics Sea Devils, promoting diversity and community togetherness within the team is a necessity. The NSEA Sea Devils swim team and its outreach program, Northside Elite Athletics, have made waves within the Wilmington, North Carolina community by helping many underprivileged families learn to swim and developing a strong competitive team over the past two years. The Sea Devils swim team is currently more than 50 percent diverse and aims to expand its diversity exponentially over time.
NSEA Outreach Coordinator Beth Forbes spoke to USA Swimming about their emerging competitive team and inspiring outreach program which offers free swim lessons to economically challenged families within the community.
“Our focus is teaching kids to swim. When you take away the barrier of money, people really want to learn to swim. The long-term goal with the outreach program is that there would be no childhood drownings within our community. We hope that every child has the experience and the opportunity to swim and to be made water safer.”
NSEA Sea Devils first became a competitive team in April of 2019 and began Northside Elite Athletics to offer outreach lessons the same year over the summer. In the fall, the city partnered with NSEA to allow them to use their summer pool year-round. Luckily, the team founders figured out a way to heat the pool and obtain a bubble to continue the swim season over the colder months. Shortly after both programs got off the ground, Hurricane Florence hit on Wrightsville Beach which caused major flooding in Wilmington.
“People were afraid to get into the rescue boats because they could not swim and they were scared of the water,” Forbes said.
Forbes mentioned that the impact the hurricane had on the community and the discovery that many of the swim team members’ friends from school did not know how to swim was an eye-opening experience for her and the other coaches from their team. NSEA knew its mission to teach families to swim was imperative and their organization has worked hard to accomplish this goal.
After the temporary hiatus due to COVID-19, the demand for lessons as well as children showing interest in joining the competitive team increased significantly upon NSEA’s reopening. Since then, NSEA has also partnered with other non-profit organizations and a local university to broaden its reach with offering swim lessons.
“We believe in growing our team from the ground up and the lessons are an important part of our program,” she said.
The outreach program currently offers scheduled lessons on Saturdays, four hours of lessons on weekdays during the summer, adult lessons, and even water aerobics. NSEA’s Elite Athletics program has taught 204 kids to swim in its first year and helped 109 become water safer. That same year, 8 kids joined the Sea Devils swim team after taking lessons.
Not only has the outreach had huge success with teaching kids to swim, but the Sea Devils swim team has grown exponentially and also accomplished a lot since its debut two years ago. The team went from having three kids qualify for state championships and sectionals during its first season, to 20 kids qualify for both this past season.
In addition, the Sea Devils swim team works tirelessly to promote diversity and include children from all backgrounds.
“Our long-term goal with the competitive team is to be the most diverse team in USA Swimming. We want to see one of our kids who have traveled up from swim lessons swim either at State Champs, or at Sectionals or at the Olympics and we want to be able to say that we opened the doors to help them get there,” Forbes said.
NSEA also does not discriminate against children with disabilities in the lessons or the swim team. “We’ve had kids with Autism, kids who were legally blind, kids with ADD, and kids with cognitive disorders participate in the free lessons. On our swim team, we have five kids that have disclosed they have a disability.”
The swim team has grown to a total of 80 swimmers, from a pre-swim team level up to high school group with athletes who are looking to swim in college. But none of this development could have been possible without the help from the city, local businesses and non-profits, volunteers, coaches, swimmers and swim team parents.
The organization currently only has four paid employees (three coaches and a lessons coordinator) plus its lifeguarding staff. “Our swim team coaches volunteer with the lessons and all of our swim team kids volunteer,” Forbes stated.
NSEA Head Coach Devin Lessard added, “We are very fortunate with a small team to be able to have small training groups that allow those with goals to make championship meets, do so with specific training. One of our groups that does this, is also required to give back and volunteer with our swim lessons or our beginner swim team group. This way it stays full circle within our team and our newer swimmers have older, motivated swimmers to look up to.”
The community has also done its part to help NSEA continue teaching water safety, swim lessons, and develop its swim team. The hospital system and Live Oak Bank have both supported the team financially along with a few other businesses in the area. The team ran its first 5K in April and raised $20,000 to put towards its programs. NSEA recently also received a Make a Splash grant from USA Swimming with the promise to teach 200 kids to learn to swim in the next year.
We believe that water skills can open so many doors for a person. Our goal is to increase the diversity, the equity, and the inclusion of all people in the sport of swimming.”
NSEA Outreach Coordinator Beth Forbes spoke to USA Swimming about their emerging competitive team and inspiring outreach program which offers free swim lessons to economically challenged families within the community.
“Our focus is teaching kids to swim. When you take away the barrier of money, people really want to learn to swim. The long-term goal with the outreach program is that there would be no childhood drownings within our community. We hope that every child has the experience and the opportunity to swim and to be made water safer.”
NSEA Sea Devils first became a competitive team in April of 2019 and began Northside Elite Athletics to offer outreach lessons the same year over the summer. In the fall, the city partnered with NSEA to allow them to use their summer pool year-round. Luckily, the team founders figured out a way to heat the pool and obtain a bubble to continue the swim season over the colder months. Shortly after both programs got off the ground, Hurricane Florence hit on Wrightsville Beach which caused major flooding in Wilmington.
“People were afraid to get into the rescue boats because they could not swim and they were scared of the water,” Forbes said.
Forbes mentioned that the impact the hurricane had on the community and the discovery that many of the swim team members’ friends from school did not know how to swim was an eye-opening experience for her and the other coaches from their team. NSEA knew its mission to teach families to swim was imperative and their organization has worked hard to accomplish this goal.
After the temporary hiatus due to COVID-19, the demand for lessons as well as children showing interest in joining the competitive team increased significantly upon NSEA’s reopening. Since then, NSEA has also partnered with other non-profit organizations and a local university to broaden its reach with offering swim lessons.
“We believe in growing our team from the ground up and the lessons are an important part of our program,” she said.
The outreach program currently offers scheduled lessons on Saturdays, four hours of lessons on weekdays during the summer, adult lessons, and even water aerobics. NSEA’s Elite Athletics program has taught 204 kids to swim in its first year and helped 109 become water safer. That same year, 8 kids joined the Sea Devils swim team after taking lessons.
Not only has the outreach had huge success with teaching kids to swim, but the Sea Devils swim team has grown exponentially and also accomplished a lot since its debut two years ago. The team went from having three kids qualify for state championships and sectionals during its first season, to 20 kids qualify for both this past season.
In addition, the Sea Devils swim team works tirelessly to promote diversity and include children from all backgrounds.
“Our long-term goal with the competitive team is to be the most diverse team in USA Swimming. We want to see one of our kids who have traveled up from swim lessons swim either at State Champs, or at Sectionals or at the Olympics and we want to be able to say that we opened the doors to help them get there,” Forbes said.
NSEA also does not discriminate against children with disabilities in the lessons or the swim team. “We’ve had kids with Autism, kids who were legally blind, kids with ADD, and kids with cognitive disorders participate in the free lessons. On our swim team, we have five kids that have disclosed they have a disability.”
The swim team has grown to a total of 80 swimmers, from a pre-swim team level up to high school group with athletes who are looking to swim in college. But none of this development could have been possible without the help from the city, local businesses and non-profits, volunteers, coaches, swimmers and swim team parents.
The organization currently only has four paid employees (three coaches and a lessons coordinator) plus its lifeguarding staff. “Our swim team coaches volunteer with the lessons and all of our swim team kids volunteer,” Forbes stated.
NSEA Head Coach Devin Lessard added, “We are very fortunate with a small team to be able to have small training groups that allow those with goals to make championship meets, do so with specific training. One of our groups that does this, is also required to give back and volunteer with our swim lessons or our beginner swim team group. This way it stays full circle within our team and our newer swimmers have older, motivated swimmers to look up to.”
The community has also done its part to help NSEA continue teaching water safety, swim lessons, and develop its swim team. The hospital system and Live Oak Bank have both supported the team financially along with a few other businesses in the area. The team ran its first 5K in April and raised $20,000 to put towards its programs. NSEA recently also received a Make a Splash grant from USA Swimming with the promise to teach 200 kids to learn to swim in the next year.
We believe that water skills can open so many doors for a person. Our goal is to increase the diversity, the equity, and the inclusion of all people in the sport of swimming.”