Adult swim team focuses on fun, fitness and winning

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Saturday, June 12, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

When Darlene Rogers’ alarm clock rings at 4:38 each morning, it’s not just to get her out of bed. It represents the discipline she’s embraced for a healthy lifestyle.

By 5:30 a.m., the 55-year-old Rogers will have driven to the Desert Breeze pool and have jumped into the facility’s Olympic-style indoor pool with other members of the Las Vegas Masters Swim Team.

Rogers brags that she has lost 50 pounds in about nine months of training, lowering her blood pressure and improving her heart rate. She’s equally impressed with her performances in the 500-meter freestyle, 100 backstroke and 100 breast stroke in the beginners’ portion of her first competition.

“Just being able to say I finished the races was really, really encouraging,” Rogers said. “I had never swam (competitively) before, so it was the best learning experience. It was a good reward for waking up early every day.”

The way she meticulously follows her schedule — yes, she wakes up at 4:38 each weekday morning, and has the drive to the pool timed to the minute — is comparable to how structured the club’s practices are.

The swimmers, grouped three or four per lane, are all business, completing 5,000 yards (more than 3 miles) worth of laps each morning.

Standing near the edge of the pool and shouting instructions is coach Vic Hecker, the first swim coach at UNLV in the 1970s, who volunteers his time as the club’s coach. He is demanding of his swimmers, stressing fundamentals such as crisp strokes and precise turns.

“I talk loud so they can hear me, but other than that I don’t raise my voice,” Hecker said. “I make sure they have fun with it, especially the beginners. It’s recreation, but it is structured.”

The rising sun peeks through a bay of windows at the north end of the facility, seemingly skipping across the water in a sign of how early it is.

By the time the group leaves, when several race to the locker room to change clothes for work, the sun nearly lights the aquatic center.

“Even though you get into the routine (of waking up), it’s still hard,” said Kirsten Eddins, 44. “But you feel a lot better the rest of the day after you get your training in.”

Masters swimming is for participants ages 18 and older — and sometimes a lot older. Will Rauch, a 75-year-old retired casino worker, is a national champion in various freestyle events.

Some are former high school or college swimmers, a handful have raced in Olympic trials, and several are new to the sport with hopes of increasing their fitness level. Swimmers pay a $60 fee every three months to use the Desert Breeze pool, and swimmers must be members of USA Swimming ($42 annually) to participate in events. Competition divisions are based on a swimmers’ ages and abilities.

“Swim and stay young forever, that’s our motto,” Hecker said.

The 75-year-old Hecker, who has worked with Las Vegas swimmers of all ages over the past three decades, was retired from coaching and working in real estate when he got the itch to get back.

He was training his daughter at the Las Vegas Municipal Pool when she was swimming for Palo Verde High in 2000. An adult swimmer also practicing at the facility asked Hecker for some pointers, and soon he was working with a handful of adults.

About 10 years later, with the energetic Hecker leading the way, the club is producing world-record times and scoring respectable finishes at nationals each year. In 2002, the club won the short-course nationals in Hawaii, and continues to place high at the short- and long-course national meets annually.

Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur, or FINA, the governing body of masters swimming worldwide, began documenting top times last year. The Las Vegas team wasted no time entering the record books.

The foursome of Kari Adams, Carolyn Battin, Kirsten Eddins and Paula James set the world record in the 400 medley relay at 5 minutes, 12.98 seconds in December at the Southern Pacific Masters Association regional championships in the collective-aged 160-to-199 division (meaning swimmers had to be at least 40 years of age but, combined, not more than 199).

“You have a mutual obligation to each other to be here (each morning),” James said. “It’s that common work ethic that helps us get going.”

Also, the team of Jarvis Marlow, Tryggvi Helgason, Ben Erickson and Keith Dennison set the masters world record in the 800 freestyle at 8:46.07.

The list of champions certainly adds to the club’s success. But Hecker is quick to point out that it’s not the only reason why the club is a success.

It’s watching beginners like Rogers learn the sport. Hecker doesn’t care what level of ability his swimmers have — as long as they don’t hit snooze on their alarm clocks.

“As soon as you step foot in the water, you know you are awake,” Rogers said.