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What we do
The purpose of the Tri-County Swim League is:
- to promote interest in safe swimming through friendly
competition,
- to provide incentives for improving swimming skills,
- to improve water safety awareness in children and young adults,
- to promote health, fitness, and sportsmanlike conduct among all
participants, including coaches and
- to conduct all league competitions in the fairest and safest
manner possible for all participants.
Who we are
-Written by Chris McCullough, League Founder and President
1979-2013
In 1978 at the newly constructed Beckett Ridge Country Club located
in West Chester, Ohio, (formerly Union Township), Chris McCullough
established a swimming team, the Beckett Ridge Swim Team, for the
enjoyment of the members of the country club. Chris, a former
competitive swimmer with a twelve year career and a USA (previously
AAU) national team member, found it difficult at that time to find
other nearby swim teams to engage in competition.
After contacting the already established Butler County Swim League
in 1979 and finding no opening for Beckett Ridge, there was no
other alternative but to establish a new swimming league.
Kast-A-Way Swimwear, also located in West Chester, was an excellent
source to discover other unaffiliated swim teams in the area.
A file box kept by Kast-A-Way held the contact information of
teams that did not belong to any other league. The
first meeting of the league was held in the family room of
Chris’s home in Woody Hollow located within the Lakota Hills
subdivision. Teams represented were Beckett Ridge (West
Chester), Lakota Hills (West Chester), Pleasant Run Golf Club
(Fairfield), Wyoming municipal (Wyoming) , and Hamilton West YMCA
(Hamilton). Representing Hamilton West was Claudia Multer,
Aquatics Director, who brought with her an invaluable and unique
skill set of computer technology, swim team and swim meet
management, and Red Cross water safety/swimming instruction.
The first set of Tri-County Swim League Rules and Guidelines were
penned at that meeting.
Elections were held and Chris became the president and treasurer,
and Claudia became the vice-president and secretary. The
name, Tri-County Swim League, was selected to reflect the locations
of the member teams; however, the third county was not initially
represented due to the fact that the team dropped out after the
organizational meeting.
Other teams that have participated in the TCSL over the years and
that have now disbanded are Brown’s Run Country Club of
Middletown, Wyoming municipal, Miami Whitewater of Harrison, Queen
City Racquet Club of Cincinnati, Hamilton West YMCA, Pleasant Run
Golf Club of Fairfield and most recently Harpers Point Racquet Club
of Montgomery.
Championships at each season’s end since 1979 had been held
at Beckett Ridge Country Club in the early years, then at
Countryside YMCA, alternatively back to Beckett Ridge and now at
Miami University’s Recreational Sports Center in Oxford,
Ohio. The TCSL is fortunate and extremely privileged to be
the only summer swimming league in the Tri-State area to hold its
championships there, an event that has attracted close to 1200
athletes over two days of competition at the end of July.
The TCSL has become a premier “grass roots” summer
swimming league and continues to produce quality swimmers and
coaches. Numerous swimmers from the member teams have gone on
to compete in college programs.
At the 35th TCSL Championships in 2013 Chris and Claudia
officially retired after 35 years of service to the league.
In March of 2014 at the annual TCSL meeting a new president, Bob
Burns, was elected along with several new board members. A
new era of the TCSL has begun…
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