Organization
The Moorhead Marlins are organized into peer groups. This type of organization allows swimmers to develop team unity with their friends at all levels and abilities. Swimmers remain in peer groups that grow and develop together! Swimmers are placed into a team by the head coach. The general team outlines are listed below, however, the coach has the right to deviate from the standard. Any swimmer that has participated at the high school level will be placed on the Senior Team.
SENIOR TEAM: Swimmers 13 years of age and older, all abilities and levels of development. The Senior Team meets 5-9 times a week for 1 to 2 1/2 hour scheduled practices. Swimmers discuss the number of practices recommended with their coach and set expectations in their goal sheet. The emphasis at the Senior Team level is on quality of training & development. We specialize our training using aerobic endurance, aerobic power, sprint and lactate tolerance training methods, while increasing development of stroke technique and skills. The ultimate goal is PERFORMANCE MAXIMIZATION.
AGE GROUP TEAM: Swimmers 9-12 years of age, that have passed from the Developmental Team or are proficient in all four competitive strokes and can swim a 100 yard Individual Medley. The Age Group Team meets up to 5-8 times a week for 1 to 2 hour scheduled practices. Swimmers are encouraged to practice 3-5 times a week. The emphasis is on Stroke Technique, skill development and an introduction to specific training methods. The goal is to have FUN while Learning and Developing in the sport of swimming.
DEVELOPMENTAL TEAM: Swimmers 12 & under that are NEW to the Marlins and are working toward stroke proficiency. The Developmental Team meets 3 times a week for 1 hour scheduled practices. The emphasis is an introduction to the sport of competitive swimming. The goal is for swimmers to learn the four competitive strokes and the basics of competitive swimming while having FUN.
History
"We broke away from the FM-Y team because we wanted the competition level Minnesota provides," says Mavis Falk back in 1972. Mavis, her husband Iven (whose sons swam with the Marlins) and Vivian Jacobson (mother of star flyer Lydell), were instrumental in the group's genesis. Dan Purcell, a one-time coach at the YMCA and a graduate student of Moorhead State University signed on as the club's first coach. Dan recruited so successfully that the Marlins (whose name then was the Moorhead Dragons) filled all the lanes to capacity. Between 50 and 100 hopeful swimmers churned the water that summer, in three-times-a-day workouts. With numbers like that, Dan needed help and his first assistant was Jo Eldevick, a member of a family that gave the Marlins, and, later, the high school team, several outstanding swimmers and a diver.
The Marlins provided coaching for divers as well as for swimmers during the first 2-3 years of the club's existence. The club dropped diving because experienced coaches were scarce and because few others clubs in the area supported diving. Since many swimmers had little experience or no competitive experience, the early meets were kept informal and intramural. The Marlins' first out-of-town competition took the team to Wahpeton. As the team spread its wings, two school bus loads of Marlins went to places like Brainerd, Morris, and Montevideo.
Within the next year, the club officially joined the national USS (then AAU) organization, and parents began learning the intricacies of officiating. Because little electronic help was available then, mounting a sanctioned competition meant assembling masses of helpers (e.g. three timers, and two land judges per lane.) Few adults except Mavis and Iven Falk understood how to run meets, so as the first big invitationals, the state organization provided key officials. Marlins' parents were instrumental in doing the planning necessary to inaugurate the Northern Lights Conference.
Back in 1972, few would have guessed how much USS swimming would ask of them, but both swimmers and parents agree that their efforts brought ample rewards, and that some of the most significant and enduring friendships grew due to those combined efforts of the swimmers and parents.
The Marlins Swim Club has seen many changes over the last 29 years. Approximately nine years ago, the team only had 12 swimmers, until a student of Moorhead State University was hired to coach the team. He was former swimmer on a USS swim team and he had also competed at the college level in Division II. The team began to once again grow in numbers and an assistant coach was hired who also had past swimming and coaching experience. Under a more experienced coaching staff, the swimmers improved their techniques and times and qualified for state competition and for zones.
Unfortunately, college students graduate and move on and qualified coaches are hard to find. Rather than continued hiring college students and changing coaches every year, the parents of the Marlins decided to pursue hiring a full-time coach. In 1998, a full-time coach was hired and has taken the Marlins Swim Club to a new level. The team has once again grown to 65 swimmers and more Marlin swimmers have qualified for C finals, A/B finals, state and zone competition in the past five years than the entire 28 year history of the club. The team has become a vital feeder program for the Moorhead High School Swim Teams, and past Marlin swimmers have or are currently swimming at the college level at Minnesota State University at Moorhead, Concordia College, University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota, and Gustavus Adolphus.
