Monday, January 17, 2022
Aqua Eagle Swim Club Makes a Difference in the Community and at Coppin State University
Maryland has been the home to many great American swimmers and the Aqua Eagle Swim Club of Baltimore is working to build their own place in that great legacy.
Based on the Coppin State University campus, a historically Black university, Rahim Booth and the Aqua Eagles have worked to build a program that is not only showing success at the sectional and state level but has also become a staple in the community for swim lessons and water safety education.
Booth, director for campus recreation at Coppin State and the Aqua Eagle Swim Club, launched the program in 2007 when he came to the university as an adjunct instructor. A swimmer himself and age group coach, Booth noticed the need for not only more diverse swimmers in the pool, but in the coaching ranks as well. He said someone else also took notice while he was coaching and told him they needed an instructor at Coppin, so Booth joined the school as an adjunct instructor and taught swim lessons to the college students.
“They had an eight-lane pool that wasn’t really being used except for swim lessons and I thought, ‘Hey, we could start something here,’” Booth said. At the time, the university was also designing the new physical education complex and he was given the opportunity to design the pool that exists on campus today.
“We got our wish to have the eight lanes with locker rooms, a timing system and all that good stuff,” he said. “Started out with Make a Splash, working with Diversity in Aquatics and the whole crew over there and we were grinding in the community, trying to get kids to learn how to swim with free lessons. We went around asking the five or six schools within walking distance [if they wanted to participate]. The university had really been focused on providing swim lessons and water safety education, so [starting a swim team] was a challenge to begin with.”
Booth had also hoped to develop the pool into a “liquid lab” for the university where sports management students could learn the ins-and-outs of not only running a swim program and instructing but running an aquatics facility itself. Administrative changes at the school, however, tabled the program, but Booth said it was a huge learning lesson as he reached out to leaders at Ball State and Indiana University on how they run such programs. Coppin State was still committed to running an aquatics program, as well as serving and providing access to the community and that’s where Aqua Eagles took off.
Prior to the pandemic, Booth said the Aqua Eagles would host more than 300 swim lessons a year, with 55 participants per session and three sessions per semester. Though the program started off providing the lessons for free (Coppin State students can take swim lessons for free), the growth in the number of students has required him to hire more instructors, though he’s worked to keep the cost as minimal as possible at $65 per eight-lesson session. While many of those taking lessons are kids, Booth said many parents will see how much their kids are learning and having fun and will sign up for adult lessons themselves.
Before the pool was closed due to the pandemic, the age group program consisted of about 40 youth athletes and five or six Coppin State University students. Booth noted he is focused on getting more students to from the university to join so eventually Coppin State can compete as a collegiate club team.
“My vision has always been to work with our sports management program and find some students who are looking for an opportunity within the aquatics field,” Booth said. “But I also want to see an opportunity here at Coppin State for competitive swimming. NCAA may or may not come – that’s a whole process and politics…but what I can do is provide a competitive environment for students who are not getting opportunities to compete at the NCAA level. It may run like a traditional club, but they’d get an opportunity to complete collegiately. Like students at a Georgia Tech, they have a big event that’s a huge event – it’s like Nationals, but it’s at the club level. I think there’s a big value in club sports in college in general. Some can’t do NCAA because it’s time consuming, but with club, they can swim in the morning or evening.”
The break with COVID has allowed the program to look at revamping so the college-aged students can perhaps compete at the college club level. The few college students who swim with Aqua Eagles don’t currently compete and they’ve helped run the aquatics programs and facility on campus.
“We have the facilities, we have the coaching, but we’re finding students today need a little financial help with attending school,” Booth said. “It would be a club program to swim in the Collegiate Swim Association – which is pretty competitive – but it’s compatible for the student who swam age group, swam though high school and I want to go to college and continue my swim career, but here’s an opportunity for you to come here at Coppin.”
Booth also noted the many of the HBCUs have aquatics facilities, but these schools are already challenged with meeting the financial needs of the collegiate sports already in place. With an Olympic sport such as swimming that may not generate as much revenue as other sports, Booth said it’s been crucial to understand other ways an aquatics program can generate the funds to support a team, but also acknowledged the gap in people of color working in the aquatics space creates another challenge.
“I think bringing awareness to the opportunities in terms of leadership [for these programs] is important – we’re struggling even in terms of coaches that are people of color – and we’re struggling with a succession planning for coaches in the sport…we’re losing persons of color who learned to swim and are coaches so we have to make it attractive to the whole community,” Booth said. “It’s not just every four years, it’s consistent, it’s hard work and I’m sitting here today as the director of a campus recreation department for my experience in aquatics and I’m blessed with that opportunity that it’s given me. I want to give back and see it that way. You never know the people you meet, the relationships you develop and opportunities you get. We travel across the country all through aquatics. That’s what I want to see in my return the sport of swimming. The challenge is we need to present it as a revenue generator. How can we be self-sustaining on a college campus - especially at HBCU - beyond renting it to the club around the corner because they’ll consume it, but they might not go into the community to find those kids to come and be a part of it.”
The Aqua Eagle Swim Club, a recipient of one of the USA Swimming Foundation’s Community Impact grants, has been out of the pool since March 2020 but is eager to go with a return to the pool next month.
“We’re coming back stronger,” Booth said. “We’re ready to dominate. We want to be the premiere aquatic program in the Baltimore metropolitan area. That’s the vision. Your whole swim experience will come through Coppin State. That’s where we’re going and that’s the long term. Short term, we’re still going to be the anchor in our community for water safety education, inclusion and belonging .”
Based on the Coppin State University campus, a historically Black university, Rahim Booth and the Aqua Eagles have worked to build a program that is not only showing success at the sectional and state level but has also become a staple in the community for swim lessons and water safety education.
Booth, director for campus recreation at Coppin State and the Aqua Eagle Swim Club, launched the program in 2007 when he came to the university as an adjunct instructor. A swimmer himself and age group coach, Booth noticed the need for not only more diverse swimmers in the pool, but in the coaching ranks as well. He said someone else also took notice while he was coaching and told him they needed an instructor at Coppin, so Booth joined the school as an adjunct instructor and taught swim lessons to the college students.
“They had an eight-lane pool that wasn’t really being used except for swim lessons and I thought, ‘Hey, we could start something here,’” Booth said. At the time, the university was also designing the new physical education complex and he was given the opportunity to design the pool that exists on campus today.
“We got our wish to have the eight lanes with locker rooms, a timing system and all that good stuff,” he said. “Started out with Make a Splash, working with Diversity in Aquatics and the whole crew over there and we were grinding in the community, trying to get kids to learn how to swim with free lessons. We went around asking the five or six schools within walking distance [if they wanted to participate]. The university had really been focused on providing swim lessons and water safety education, so [starting a swim team] was a challenge to begin with.”
Booth had also hoped to develop the pool into a “liquid lab” for the university where sports management students could learn the ins-and-outs of not only running a swim program and instructing but running an aquatics facility itself. Administrative changes at the school, however, tabled the program, but Booth said it was a huge learning lesson as he reached out to leaders at Ball State and Indiana University on how they run such programs. Coppin State was still committed to running an aquatics program, as well as serving and providing access to the community and that’s where Aqua Eagles took off.
Prior to the pandemic, Booth said the Aqua Eagles would host more than 300 swim lessons a year, with 55 participants per session and three sessions per semester. Though the program started off providing the lessons for free (Coppin State students can take swim lessons for free), the growth in the number of students has required him to hire more instructors, though he’s worked to keep the cost as minimal as possible at $65 per eight-lesson session. While many of those taking lessons are kids, Booth said many parents will see how much their kids are learning and having fun and will sign up for adult lessons themselves.
Before the pool was closed due to the pandemic, the age group program consisted of about 40 youth athletes and five or six Coppin State University students. Booth noted he is focused on getting more students to from the university to join so eventually Coppin State can compete as a collegiate club team.
“My vision has always been to work with our sports management program and find some students who are looking for an opportunity within the aquatics field,” Booth said. “But I also want to see an opportunity here at Coppin State for competitive swimming. NCAA may or may not come – that’s a whole process and politics…but what I can do is provide a competitive environment for students who are not getting opportunities to compete at the NCAA level. It may run like a traditional club, but they’d get an opportunity to complete collegiately. Like students at a Georgia Tech, they have a big event that’s a huge event – it’s like Nationals, but it’s at the club level. I think there’s a big value in club sports in college in general. Some can’t do NCAA because it’s time consuming, but with club, they can swim in the morning or evening.”
The break with COVID has allowed the program to look at revamping so the college-aged students can perhaps compete at the college club level. The few college students who swim with Aqua Eagles don’t currently compete and they’ve helped run the aquatics programs and facility on campus.
“We have the facilities, we have the coaching, but we’re finding students today need a little financial help with attending school,” Booth said. “It would be a club program to swim in the Collegiate Swim Association – which is pretty competitive – but it’s compatible for the student who swam age group, swam though high school and I want to go to college and continue my swim career, but here’s an opportunity for you to come here at Coppin.”
Booth also noted the many of the HBCUs have aquatics facilities, but these schools are already challenged with meeting the financial needs of the collegiate sports already in place. With an Olympic sport such as swimming that may not generate as much revenue as other sports, Booth said it’s been crucial to understand other ways an aquatics program can generate the funds to support a team, but also acknowledged the gap in people of color working in the aquatics space creates another challenge.
“I think bringing awareness to the opportunities in terms of leadership [for these programs] is important – we’re struggling even in terms of coaches that are people of color – and we’re struggling with a succession planning for coaches in the sport…we’re losing persons of color who learned to swim and are coaches so we have to make it attractive to the whole community,” Booth said. “It’s not just every four years, it’s consistent, it’s hard work and I’m sitting here today as the director of a campus recreation department for my experience in aquatics and I’m blessed with that opportunity that it’s given me. I want to give back and see it that way. You never know the people you meet, the relationships you develop and opportunities you get. We travel across the country all through aquatics. That’s what I want to see in my return the sport of swimming. The challenge is we need to present it as a revenue generator. How can we be self-sustaining on a college campus - especially at HBCU - beyond renting it to the club around the corner because they’ll consume it, but they might not go into the community to find those kids to come and be a part of it.”
The Aqua Eagle Swim Club, a recipient of one of the USA Swimming Foundation’s Community Impact grants, has been out of the pool since March 2020 but is eager to go with a return to the pool next month.
“We’re coming back stronger,” Booth said. “We’re ready to dominate. We want to be the premiere aquatic program in the Baltimore metropolitan area. That’s the vision. Your whole swim experience will come through Coppin State. That’s where we’re going and that’s the long term. Short term, we’re still going to be the anchor in our community for water safety education, inclusion and belonging .”