Lakewood Ranch YMCA takes another shot at hosting a swim team

Learning to swim is a must for kids in Florida.

That’s just the way it is, and the way it always has been.

In this peninsula-state, many organizations have been founded on the belief that swimming is an essential skill.

The Sarasota Sharks, Sarasota Tsunami and Lakewood Ranch Swim Association Lightning already feed local athletes’ aquatic addictions. The Lakewood Ranch YMCA wants in as well.

Since May 4, the Lakewood Ranch YMCA has fielded what will be a year-round, competitive swim team associated with USA Swimming. It competes as the Hurricanes under the umbrella of the Venice YMCA, which since 2017 has run a competitive swim team bearing that name.

It isn’t the first time the Lakewood Ranch YMCA has put together a team. Just over a decade has passed since the Blackfins were dissolved in April 2016 — a move which stranded nearly 70 swimmers and was announced only 10 days before their final practice.

The reasons for that dissolution, as outlined by then-Manatee County YMCA CEO Sean Allison, were as follows; no Olympic-size pool, lesser opportunity for the YMCA’s non-team members to use the pool, and the YMCA’s inability to afford a full-time, professional coach.

Bringing a team back has been on Executive Director Jen Haughey’s radar for the last year or so.

“One of the things we’re very passionate about is safety around water (and) teaching kids to swim,” Haughey said. “As we’ve built our swim lesson program and our aquatics programming, it just makes sense — that next level is the swim team.”

Photo by Jack Nelson

The Lakewood Ranch YMCA already offers competitive programs in volleyball and basketball. The Hurricanes’ inception is in line with that path the organization seems to be heading down.

Olivia Haughey, the branch’s program director, has overseen that new approach. Lessons, clinics and recreational leagues are no longer “the big thing,” she said.

“Now, we’re in that standpoint where we see all the competition around us and we want to keep up with that,” Olivia Haughey said. “We tend to see — in the past — (our members) hit a level where they don’t feel challenged as much anymore, so they end up leaving and going somewhere else.”

The competitive swimming scene, though, is plenty saturated already in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. This team has to be different.

It needs to offer something the Sharks, Tsunami and Lightning can’t, and it needs to avoid the Blackfins' fallout. Time heals wounds, but local families who were frustrated by that situation are unlikely to have forgotten entirely.

Jack Belshe, head swim coach at the Lakewood Ranch YMCA, believes he’s the man for the job. Haughey said the branch was waiting for the right coach to start the team, and that’s him.

Photo by Jack Nelson

He’s coached at YMCAs for 50-plus years. He was the head swim coach/aquatics coordinator at the McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA in Marietta, Georgia, before moving to Florida in July 2025.

With the Hurricanes, he wants to create a pressure-free space for swimmers to improve. He will push those who want to be pushed, but is uninterested in strict practice schedules.

Belshe said he has new members who are practicing every day at the YMCA who had just been practicing one day a week with other teams. He said they have been doing tougher workouts with his new team.

"You’ve got to have the right environment,” he said.

Belshe sees the family atmosphere of the YMCA as a differentiating factor that will attract swimmers to his program. He also pointed to the fact that members of the swim team will have access to the entire YMCA, so when they’re not in the pool, they can get into another activity without parents having to pay more.

Their goal — as a USA Swimming-associated team — is to be at the same level as nearby clubs, being well-represented on the podium at meets. He said they’ll do it their own way.

“I believe we do not have to swim the amount of yardage and stuff that (other teams) do to be competitive with them,” Belshe said. “We just have to swim smart.”

Photo by Jack Nelson

Nearly two months have passed since tryouts began. As of June 18, the team had approximately 35 swimmers ranging from 5 to 16 years old. Belshe said that number will grow to 40 in the next week or so.

Building a mega team of 200-something swimmers is not his goal. This team is shooting for 80 to 100 members so that each and every swimmer gets a quality experience.

Belshe — as well as Jen and Olivia Haughey — aren’t oblivious to the aquatic game-changer coming to their area. Premier Sports Campus North will be home to an Olympic-size pool when its Athletics aynd Aquatics Center opens this fall.

He said if the YMCA swimmers need a 50-meter pool to use, they'll send them to the Venice YMCA. 

Premier is a 4.2-mile drive from the Lakewood Ranch YMCA. The Venice YMCA, by comparison, is a 30.9-mile drive away.

If meets are held at the new pool at Premier, the Hurricanes are prepared to attend and compete, but nothing more.

“I think it’s going to be a beautiful facility, but we have our own facility,” said Jen Haughey. “We’re good here where we are.”

They've begun building this team in their own backyard. They plan to compete at a high level by sticking to their own vision.

In a busy pool of local teams, the Hurricanes of Lakewood Ranch are happy to stay in their own lane.