Young Swimmers In The Northeast Kingdom is working to build up their swim club. Four years ago the closest competitive swimming would be found in Derby. One local, Andrew Barter noticed, and as a result he decided to start a swim club. Senior and Co-Captain Eli Barrett have seen the club evolve over the years.“When we first started out there was twelve or fewer of us. We didn’t compete much, just against ourselves. We’ve branched out and other schools have joined us.”

Now, the Saint Johnsbury School is busy on weekdays with competitive youth of all ages on skills and technique. The team works hard everyday after school practicing from three-thirty to six, and on weekends the team competes in Vermont and New Hampshire. The team has sent some competitors to Massachusetts for the NESUSA 13 through 18 Championships.

They compete as a club now, but soon hopes to become a US Swim Team. As for Swim Coach Andy Barter, he says “ What’s neat is watching them progress. Kids that could barley swim the length of the pool, or did didn’t know, or weren’t even comfortable diving in, swim a whole race and they in and swim fairly well.”