Article by James L. Butler

Tualatin Hills Swim Club Celebrates 50 Years of Championship Swimming

On July 18th the Tualatin Hills Swim Club, aka: Thunderbolts, held a recognition and awards celebration to kick off the 50th Anniversary Season for this perennial Pacific Northwest swimming powerhouse. The Historical Committee of James Butler, Carol Cruzan, Julie Lindstrom, Greg Rooker and especially chairman Dave Eden along with help from Amy Milstein and several other volunteers worked for over three months to put together the event and collect all the historical information on the club.

Guests of Honor

Two special guests of honor were present, Club founder Rod Harmon who coached from 1957 to 1975 and his first assistant coach Margaret Penn Fetz who coached with the club for 37 years from 1957 to 1995. Rod and Margaret were presented with 50th anniversary T-shirts and a special bound edition of THSC history. They were especially thrilled at the opportunity to present the major club awards names after them to this years winners. Former THSC head coach, Stoddart Smith, current head coach at Jesuit also joined in the festivities. (You can also find the complete club history on the THSC website under the General Information Tab. http://www.thillsswimming.com/pdf/thschistory.pdf

50th Anniversary Club History It was the summer of 1957 when the new Beaverton High School swimming coach, Rod Harman was picking up a little summer cash working as a life guard at the pool. He spotted some kids he thought would be good prospects for his high school team if they could get in a competitive swimming program. But there wasn't one available. So Rod talked to the kids, the parents and the Tualatin Hills Rec department and officially chartered THSC with 4 swimmers, 8 parents and one swim lane in a small pool. It just so happened Margaret Penn was doing physical therapy in the same pool. That was ironic as Margaret was supposed to be the new Beaverton swim team coach but a serious automobile accident took the opportunity away from here. When she saw Rod working with the kids, she could not stay away and offered to help. When Rod saw her expertise and tenacity on stroke perfection, he quickly made her his assistant. They spent the next 18 years together coaching at THSC. Each brought something special to the club. My favorite story of Rod's is when he took the team to practice at the Raleigh Hills outdoor pool. There were no lane markers at the bottom of the pool, no lane ropes on the surface of the pool and no roof above the pool. When the kids jumped in to do circle swimming it was like demolition derby night at the speedway. Head up swimming was in, back stroke was out and fly was a lethal weapon. Coach Rod decided to use that most ancient of coaching strategies and let the kids figure it out for them selves. They did. They set up landmarks outside the pool to guide them and were circle swimming perfectly within a coupe of days.

Margaret, on the other hand, figured if you are going to train outdoors, it may as well be in open water! She took the whole team up to American Lake near Ft. Lewis for 2 weeks each summer. Some stayed in the family lodge, others came up with their families and camped out but it was no vacation. They swam two workouts a day in that lake. Margaret's favorite stroke is the butterfly and one of the sets was to swim the butterfly around the island in the lake all the way back to shore, over a mile. Open water, waves, cold, butterfly for a mile. In the eary 1980s Head Coach Gary Leach had an incredible group of young swimmers capable of national level competition. He and the board wanted to change THSC to be a club where swimmers could go all the way to the top without leaving for places like Santa Clara. The 50 meter pool was built. Alan Cardwell came in from the east and knew what it took to run a national level program. In 1986, Alan left to take on a dream job, but he turned over a swim team to Ben Davis that put 5 swimmers in the 1988 Olympic Trials, one of which brought home a Gold Medal. THSC has had at least one Olympic Trials qualifier in every Olympics since, 17 total as of this year.

Under Ben Davis, THSC dominated the Pacific Northwest and sent swimmers to Nationals every year. By 1998 when Ben left to return to Alabama, the club was ready to take another step, to bring the world to THSC. Coach Paul Bergen came in and wherever coach Paul Bergen went, the swimming world followed. Olympians from around the world flocked to the 50 meter pool and the kids who were already here swam right with them, and sometimes beat them. In 2000 the Junior International Meet was established in our pool and became one of the best junior championship swim meets in the world. None of this ended when Paul left. It has just gotten better. Linck has put together a great coaching team on deck, the parents have put together a great team to support them and the swimmers are still dominating the Northwest and qualifying for Olympic Trials.

Coaches' Recognition

It takes great coaches to have a great swim club and we have an outstanding team that comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, coaching experiences, life experiences and geography. Yet they still seam to like each other. And they certainly enjoy what they are doing. Linck Bergen - Head Coach, Senior National Coach Alex Steger - Head Assistant Coach, Senior, Senior Prep Coach Ben Swinehart - Head Age Group Coach, Top Age Group, Team Thunder Coach Ruth Stocks - Assistant Age Group Coach, Junior Age Group Coach Bridgett Dawson - Assistant Coach, Dry Land Coach, Olympic Way Coach Jason Moore - Assistant Coach, just joined us this spring and helping with all groups

Parents' Recognition

It takes great parents to have a great swim club and the club's board of directors are the heroes of the parents with everything they do to keep the club going, growing and looking to the future. Trying to balance the needs of swimmers, coaches and parents in a club this large and diverse would humble the best of our public servants. Here are the THSC board members for this season:

THSC Board of Directors
Sheila McCarroll - president
Joel Scroggy - vice president
Michelle Burke - treasurer (AR)
Carol Cruzan - travel
Dave Eden - operations
Delores Hartman - membership
Jim Luick - secretary
Chip Morris - bingo
Julie Stevens -meet manager
Kelli Walker - treasurer (AP)

Volunteers

USA swimming has to be the most volunteer intensive sport on the planet. It takes every single parent to prepare, run and recover from a big meet. But just what is that worth to the club? I ran some quick numbers and figured if we had to pay minimum wage for every volunteer hour spent to put on our home swim meets this season we would shell out close to $60,000. The thing is, most us wouldn't do what we do in a swim meet for minimum wage, maybe for any wage. It just proves we do things without hesitation for the love of our children we would never do for money.
There are of course volunteers that make exceptional contributions to the club deserving of special recognition. Three of them this year are:
Debbie Scroggy - She does all the meet entries for us which is especially exciting when there are 4 meets in three different states on the same weekend and she has kids in three of them. (Thank God for text messaging!)
Ruth Stocks - For managing one of the best club websites in the USA swimming organization. Keeping a website this large update is a tremendous amount of work.
Robin Holt - For producing our outstanding weekly newsletter, the Courier. A lot of us parents would be lost without the information we get from it every week. And a lot of our swimmers would miss those last minute schedule changes for sure!

Swimmers' Recognition

And now we come to center piece of the celebration, the great swimmers. Being a great swimmer is about more than winning. It is about commitment to doing your best, supporting your team mates, honoring your parent's support, respecting your coaches and representing the club as a good citizen. Make no mistake about it, no matter what level of personal achievement they have obtained just being in this club makes all of them great swimmers.

The Margarett Penn Award for outstanding age group athlete
[insert picture of Margaret presenting trophy to Steve Ung]
Each year the Margarett Penn Award is presented to the year's most outstanding 14 and under athlete. The most important aspect of age group swimming is perfecting stroke technique. This award is named after Margaret Penn Fetz because she was tenacious at teaching stroke perfection. No one knows that better than THSC Olympian Brent Lang. When he came back to the club with his Gold Medal in 1988, he dove in to do a 100m demonstration swim and Coach Margaret stopped him half-way down the pool to correct his stroke in front of the entire swim club. He listened then did what he was told. When I asked him why a few weeks ago, he said "Why wouldn't I? Listening to my coaches is what made me an Olympian,"
This year's recipient has had a great year winning two events at the Age Group Section Meet (50/100FR) and ranking in the National Top 16 in five individual events including 3rd place rankings in both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle. He also set two new OSI/State Records, seven new THSC Records and is knocking on the door for his first ever Junior National Qualifying Time.

This year's Margaret Penn Award for the most outstanding age group athlete goes to Steven Ung!

Chris Givens Award for Outstanding Leadership
[Insert picture of Head Coach Linck Bergen presenting trophy to Morgan Scroggy]

In honor of Coach Chris Givens we created a new award last year to recognize one athlete who has demonstrated outstanding leadership.

Many think of leaders as outspoken, yet in this year's case our recipient is soft spoken and leads, not through words, but through her actions. For years she has demonstrated the highest level of commitment, an incredible work ethic and a desire to become the very best and anyone willing to follow will undoubtedly find success.
Her dedication and commitment has made her, not only, one of the best swimmers in the state, a position she has held for several years, but one of the best in the country. She was one of the most highly recruited HS athletes in the country and has earned summer national qualifying times in six events and Olympic Trial qualifying times in three.
She leaves this fall for her freshman year at the University of Georgia and we hope that others will remember how she did it, because SHE DOES IT RIGHT! Her successes have never been an accident, they have always come through a sense of purpose. I overhead a great example of her impact on the team after a tough practice last year. Sean O'Keefe was getting on a couple of team mates for their performance. Frustrated, he stood up and said "Everybody's goal on this team should be to beat Morgan Scroggy in practice!" One of the swimmers looked up at him and said "I can't beat Morgan. She's taller than me and going to the Olympics," Sean said "Don't you want to go to the Olympics?" The other swimmers said "Yeah but I can do that without beating Morgan Scroggy," Sean gave up.
This year's Chris Givens' Award winner is…Morgan Scroggy!

Rod Harman Award for Outstanding Senior Athlete [Insert picture of Rod Harmon presenting trophy to Morgon Henderson-Kunz]
Each year the Rod Harman Award is presented to the year's most outstanding senior athlete. And from the beginning being the outstanding senior athlete in this club has meant you are one of the best senior athletes in the country. In the early 1960s Cathy Jamison qualified for Nationals at 13 years old then went on to finish 4th in the 1968 Olympics. Since 1988 the club has had at least one Olympic Trials qualifier in every Olympics and multiple representatives at USA Nationals competition every year. This year's recipient fits right into that mold and has had an incredible year winning two events at the short course senior section meet and achieving…

*OSI/State Records in six events
*THSC Records is fifteen events
*JR National qualifying times in five events
*First ever Summer National qualifying times in two events
*First ever Olympic Trials qualifying time in the 100FR
*National Top 16 standards in seven individual events including #1 national age group rankings in three: 100y FR, 100m FR and 200y FR.

He has had a great year in 2007 and will be working towards even greater achievements in 2008.

This year's Rod Harman Award for the most outstanding senior athlete, if you've yet to figure it out, goes to…Morgan Henderson-Kunz!!!

Highest Level of Achievement

The THSC consists of 7 groups of swimmers, over 200 kids, who are at different stages of their competitive swimming career. The swimmers in each group received a certificate for their highest time standard achieved during the season.
OLYMPIC WAY (OW): Just entering the competitive swimming world, mostly ages 8 and under.
TEAM THUNDER (THND): 10 and under swimmers nearing or achieving state level competition (A times)
JUNIOR AGE GROUP (JAG): Mostly ages 9 - 12 developing for moving into TAG or SRP groups
TOP AGE GROUP (TAG): Mostly ages 10-13 competing at State (A times) and Age Group Sectional levels (AGSC times)
SENIOR PREPARATION (SRP): Ages 13 and over developing to move to Senior
SENIOR (SR): Ages 13 and over competing at State, Age Group Sectional, Senior Sectional levels
SENIOR NATIONAL (SRN): Ages 15 and over competing at Senior Sectional, National Level and Olympic Trials Level of competition

2006 - 2007 Season Achievements of Tualatin Hills Swim Club swimmers
National Top 16 - individual events
Each year USA Swimming lists the 16 fastest times in each age group and event in the country. This year 12 THSC athletes swam Top 16 times in 38 individual events.
Sarah Cruzan, Morgan Henderson-Kunz , Jordan King, Taylor Lakey Jessica Li, Mackenzie Luick, Connor McCarroll, Kathleen McCarroll, Gabe Rooker, Prudence Rooker, Morgan Scroggy, Steven Ung
National Top 16 - relays
Another 21 THSC swimmers teamed up with the individual stars to record a total of 18 relay swims that were in the Top 16 relay times in the nation.
Cory Johnson, Karen Huan, Taylor Scroggy, Megan McCarroll, Abby Lindstrom, Sharon Rooker, Ashley Needham, Jonathan Yuan, Neil O'Halloran, Filip Kapelac, Natalie Walker, Michelle Needham, Whitney Dawson, Alex Farrer, Quincy Lee, Andrew Viglione, Daniel Rooker, Carlos Nunez, Rafael Canales, Cody Deacon

Oregon Swimming (OSI) State Record Setters
Oregon Swimming State Records are a tough mark. Many of them were set by former Olympians and Olympic Trials Swimmers. This year 5 THSC swimmers toppled 16 of them.
Morgan Henderson-Kunz (6) in 15-16 boys, Jordan King (1) in 15-16 Girls, Gabe Rooker (1) in 11-12 Boys,Morgan Scroggy (5); 3 in 17-18 girls, 2 in Open Girls, Steven Ung (2) in 13-14 boys, and 1 13-14 Girls Relay record by Taylor Lakey, Taylor Scroggy, Sarah Cruzan and Abby Lindstrom

THSC Record Setters
In addition to the State Records listed above, 70 THSC club records have fallen. When you think about how many Olympic Trials qualifiers have swam for this club, you can appreciate what a great accomplishment it is to break one of the club records.
All of the club records can be found at http://www.thillsswimming.com/club_records.htm.
They are generally updated at the end of the season, late August.

Individual Record Setters
Morgan HK,Taylor Lakey Abby Lindstrom, Connor McCarroll, Quincy Lee, Gabe Rooker, Morgan Scroggy, Steven Ung, Andrew Yoon,

Rely Record Setters
10&U Boys: Stanley Cen, Eric Xu, Zach Scroggy, Dylan Brady,
11-12 Girls: Adena Fenrich, Charlene Yuan, Kathleen McCarroll, Jessica li,
11-12 Boys: Connor Morris, Sovijja Pou, Eric Chang, Jackson Wahl, Colin Pettit, Reuben White, Marcus Imponenti
13-14 Girls: Sarah Cruzan, Carissa Burke, Taylor Lakey, Abby Lindstrom, Megan McCarroll, Taylor Scroggy
13-14 Boys: Steven Ung, Jonathan Yuan, Neil O'Halloran, Filip Kapelac, Brian Stocks 15-16 Girls Alex Farrer, Victoria Hartman, Kelsey Pinson, Michelle Needham
15-16 Boys: Brendan Liu, Tristan Briggs, Daniel Rooker, Carlos Nunez Open Boys Quincy Lee, Andrew Viglione, Daniel Rooker, Morgan HK, Connor McCarroll, Cody

Swimmers who have made the big time standard cuts everyone is shooting for
Junior National Qualifiers [insert picture]
Morgon Henderson-Kunz, Jordan King, Quincy Lee, Mackenzie Luick, Connor McCarroll, Carlos Nunez, Morgan Scroggy, Natalie Walker
Summer National Qualifiers [insert picture]
Morgon Henderson-Kunz, Jordan King, Mackenzie Luick, Kara Nelson, Morgan Scroggy
Olympic Trials Qualifiers [insert picture]
Morgon Henderson-Kunz, Morgan Scroggy
High School Graduates
THSC swimmers have also established a tradition of academic excellence over the years. Many have gone on to be Academic All Americans at some of the top universities in the country. This year's group of graduating seniors look to continue that tradition. Rafael Canales (TBD), Franny Cyphers (Pepperdine University), Cody Deacon (United States Air Force Academy), Lindsey King (Texas A&M University),Quincy Lee (Ohio State University), Morgan Scroggy (University of Georgia), Andrew Viglione (Xavier University), Natalie Walker (University of Denver),