The Lebanon Valley Otters--
17 Years of Swimming the Otter Way
The Lebanon Valley Otters Swim Team was born in the
fall of 1989, when a small, but dedicated nucleus of Annville-Cleona Dolphin
Swim Team parents and coaches approached Lebanon Valley College with a request
to lease the pool in the college’s newly-constructed Arnold Sports Center. LVC
agreed to provide pool time to the fledgling Otters organization, which hoped to
establish a winter age-group, competitive swimming team based in Annville.
Seventeen years and hundreds of Otters later, the team
is a thriving presence on the LVC campus. Competing in the AA division of the
Central Pennsylvania Aquatic League, the Otters have won several division
championships and launched many Otters to successful college swimming careers.
Yet swimming success is only part of the Otter experience. The organization is
defined by a friendly, encouraging, and team-minded atmosphere, one in which all
efforts and abilities are welcomed and celebrated. Led by Jim and Mary Gardner,
the same head coaches present since its founding, the team functions like an
extended family, as older swimmers regularly mentor the younger set. Each year,
Lebanon Valley College students assist in coaching the team, while numerous
Otters, upon high school graduation, choose to attend LVC and join both its swim
team and the ranks of the Otters coaching staff.
During the summer months, the team competes as the Otters at Annville-Cleona in
the A division of the Mid-Penn Swimming League. The Otters practice and host
meets outdoors at the Annville-Cleona Pool, where the A-C Swim Team (originally
the Dolphins and now the Otters) has competed since the 1960's. The team is
steeped in both tradition and camaraderie, as many children of those early
Dolphins now don the suit of the Otter and dive into the same pool their parents
did.
The Otters swimming program emphasizes stroke development in an atmosphere of
personal relationships. Its vision is that each swimmer will strive for both the
improvement of skills that will span many swim seasons and the development of
character that will last a lifetime.