The DeKalb
County Swim Team (DCST) is a year-round YMCA affiliated age group
team.
About DCST
DCST Members are from Dekalb County located in northern
Illinois. Our swim team was started in 1980 and has
been growing since then. Today we have over 220
swimmers from ages 6 through 18. We are affiliated with
Kishwaukee YMCA located in DeKalb, IL.
The team is broken into 10 different age groups to allow our
swimmers to have fun while developing their skills.
Our year round swimming is broken into two seasons: summer and
winter. The summer season starts in April and continues
through the beginning of August. The winter season
starts in September and continues through April.
The DCST program mission:
to foster children’s enjoyment of swimming as a life-long
activity and sport by promoting individual skill improvement and
achievement of personal goals through participation with other
children within a framework of fun and friendship.
The DCST swim program:
- purpose is to provide a year-round, consistent, high quality
competitive swim program.
- is open to boys and girls from early elementary school to
early post-high school, regardless of swimming ability, race,
color, ethnic origin, or religion.
- is a part of the Kishwaukee YMCA and, as such, is a nonprofit,
volunteer administered, professionally coached organization. The
Kishwaukee YMCA provides competitive opportunities to the area
swimming community through its district, state and national
affiliations. DCST also abides by the YMCA’s philosophy of
competitive swimming.
- is also a member of United States Swimming, Inc. (USS), the
national governing body of amateur swimming chartered by Congress
under the Amateur Sports Act. The mission of USS is to promote
competitive swimming and to organize United States’ national
swim teams, including the Olympic Swim Team. USS programs are open
to everyone and range in ability from beginners to the US Olympic
Swim Team. The DCST swim program participates in a wide range of
educational, social, safety, and competitive programs offered by
USS.
- in the summer is a member of the 13 team, North Central
Illinois Swim Conference (NCISC).
The DCST program offers:
- a balanced program of practice, competition, and social
activities for 11 months a year.
- instruction and training in competitive swimming for boys and
girls in a highly structured, closely supervised, regularly
scheduled format.
- participation according to age and ability level in
competitions sanctioned by USS, the YMCA, and the NCISC to ensure
fair competition in a safe setting. These competitions are open to
all competitors within a given age and ability level.
- just-for-fun social activities including holiday celebrations
and end of season festivities.
The values of competitive
swimming:
Swimming has no bench sitters. Competitive swimming is a sport
in which there are no bench sitters because all programs are by
age-group and ability level.
Swimming is healthy. Injuries are few and mild. The sport has
been shown time and time again to be the best sport for overall
conditioning of the body. Swimming provides cardiovascular fitness,
muscular fitness, and increased flexibility.
Swimming provides self-discipline. No one can make a person
swim. All swimmers must develop an inner sense of discipline to
devote themselves to the sport.
Swimming is a direct reward system. In swimming, the harder you
work, the greater your reward. The time clock is an objective judge
of the result. There are no judges with subjective scores, no
dependence on the efforts of others; only you and the clock
evaluate your effort.
Swimming teaches the relationship between team and individual.
Neither team nor individual can exist and prosper in swimming
without the other. Swimming teaches people to work with others.
Swimming teaches organization. Swimmers have to organize their
day to fit in all the life activities they want. They learn to do
so, and in so doing, usually become much better students. Swimmers
are almost always better students when they are training and
competing.
Swimming teaches people how to win, how to lose with grace, and
how to develop a personal philosophy that will make them long-term
successes in life. Swimmers learn to evaluate their efforts, set
goals, and achieve. They gain an athlete’s mind that says, "I
can control my life, and the results of it. If it is to be,
it’s up to me."
Swimming is about values, and the learning of these values is
why your child should be involved in swimming.
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