With surge in interest, Sioux Falls Swim Team aims to make sport accessible

The Sioux Falls Swim Team has grown exponentially in the past year – adding 70 swimmers to the youth team.

The team now has 250 swimmers age 7 to 19, said head coach Kyle Margheim. He has been coaching for about six years.

“We’re super excited about the team right now,” Margheim said of the new swimmers. “It was such a big surprise after the past two years, which have been so hard on everybody, and the same with us.”

This Tuesday and Wednesday, the team will host evaluation nights, the open tryouts for new swimmers. The tryouts are from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Midco Aquatic Center. Margheim said they’re open to kids age 6 and older who have a good base of freestyle and backstroke and an interest in competitive swimming.

If a swimmer is accepted, he or she will have a two-week trial period to make sure it’s a good fit for the team and works with the family’s schedule.

It’s hard to say what level a swimmer should be because every lesson and program has different measurements, Margheim said. He noted that the team has some swimmers who are less competitive but still want to come do the workouts, including a beginner group that practices only one night a week.

“The kids are so dedicated, and they work really hard, and they have a lot of fun and success,” Margheim said. “We are just excited to expand and get the word out more.”

The team is a nonprofit organization, and Margheim said he could see the community easily able to support a team of 400 swimmers. He credits the additional pool space with Midco as a game-changer for growing the team and bringing visibility.

“One of my goals is to be one of the premier youth sports in the community,” he said. “We have great coaches who helps at every level to develop kids not only as swimmers but as great human beings. That’s important to us.”

The team also has a long-term goal of making swimming more accessible through exposure and outreach. Margheim stresses that no swimmer is expected to travel to every meet. There are many meets in Sioux Falls but also throughout the region, with meets picking up in November, December and January.

“Sometimes, the youth sports world gets very elite, and we want to try to open doors for kids,” Margheim said of developing outreach programs.

He also said the current swimmers are having a great year.

“We have kids in every age group who are doing very impressive things,” Margheim said. “We have a lot of kids who just like to come and enjoy themselves and be part of the team and compete locally, and they have a great time too.”

You can learn more about the team here.