Starting a USA Club Team

Hi all!

So, I live in a small/medium size town (~25k people) and we have a great swimming culture. We have a strong high school swim team, a very large YMCA team, and every year, we send approx. 5 kids to college programs (some years more, some years less).

The only downside is that there is little opportunity for high-level swimmers in my area. High school swimming here is very competitive, but only lasts 3 months of the year and YMCA swimming is a great introduction to the sport, but unless you go to YMCA Nationals, there is pretty much zero competition. This is fine for kids (<12 years old), but frustrating for collegiate/national level swimmers.

I have toyed with the idea of starting a high-level USA Club team in my town that would travel to local invites and high-level meets (Speedo Sectionals, Futures, Jnats, NCSA's, etc.), but I am not sure where to start. Personally, I have swum YMCA and USA and much preferred my USA swimming experience.

Does anyone have any experience/advice for starting a USA Club team? Generally, how does scheduling/pool rental work? How do I go about finding and hiring quality coaches?

Any and all thoughts are welcome!

submitted by /u/Swim_Boi
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