The Raleigh Swimming Association (RSA) has a rich history of team spirit, achievement, parent activism, community service and friendship that have made RSA the premiere year-round team in the Triangle.

RSA was established as a summer swim team in 1960 by representatives of area country clubs. Bill Sonner, Director of Physical Education at NCSU, was the first coach, assisted by Willis Casey and Dick Fadgen, of the NCSU athletic staff. 

RSA affiliated with the YMCA when it became a year-round program but maintained a separate parent Board. A year later, RSA dropped its association with the “Y”in order to maintain its autonomy.

With about sixty swimmers, RSA was initially financed by two sponsors: North Carolina Equipment Company, and A. E. Finley Associates. An appeal was also made to Raleigh citizens to support the association by buying a $10-$25 membership. This community support allowed for yearly dues of only 25 cents per child, plus an additional 50 cents for AAU fees.

The team’s first practices were held at the Hayes-Barton pool, the old Pullen Park pool and Peace College. RSA swam in the “bubbled” Candler Swim Club from 1972 until the bubble deteriorated beyond repair in 1982 and they were forced to move practice to the Garner Road YMCA and Optimist Club Pool. During the summers practices were held at various neighborhood pools including Scottish Hills and the Triangle Swim Club in the summer. 

In 1987, in response to increased costs and constantly dwindling pool time, the RSA Board and its membership took control of their own destiny by purchasing a new bubble for Candler. Team treasurer Don Wall was instrumental in arranging financing for the $40,000 purchase. Through a combination of donations, sales $500-$1000 bonds to members, bank loans and a $10,000 contribution from Burroughs Wellcome, the team came up with the needed capital to move forward. On December 6th, 1987 the bubble went up and Candler Swim Club became the permanent indoor season home of RSA. In the summer of 2000, the bubble received a complete overhaul to carry us into the next millennium.    

RSA’s commitment to excellence is evident from the achievements of it’s swimmers both in and out of the pool. We have produced nationally ranked swimmers in each age group from 10-UN to 17-18 including Top Ten ranked Nancy Noneman, Alan Jenny, Mike Lewis, Steve Camak, Bob Menches, Nelson Holland, Kevin Woody, Matt Fischetti, Lisa Brown, Suzanne Gardiner, Staci Sawyer, William Keever, John Fischetti, Julie Peluso, Shannon Allison, Park Willis, Kristan Keelan, Rebecca Rose, Christian Rojas, Johnnie Pearson, Bryan O’Connor, Sarah Nowell, Kyle Kluba, Andrew Buergler and Julie Smith. On the Academic side, our seniors have maintained an average GPA of 3.6 over the past 10 years and produced 20 Academic All-Americans and 40 swimmers on athletic scholarships. 

Nurturing and challenging swimmers to reach their full potential has resulted in our having twice the national average of swimmers achieving “A” level times. RSA swimmers have competed at the highest level of USA Swimming. We are proud to include 68 Junior National Qualifiers, 4 Junior National Champions, 22 Senior National Qualifiers and 4 Olympic Festival Swimmers among our alumni. Most recently, Max Allen and Cameron Moccari represented RSA at the 2000 US Olympic Trials. 

Our success has been driven by the efforts of our many fine coaches: Bill Sonner, John Calvert, Mike Weeks, John White, Kay Bowman, Woody Caudle, Rick Kobe, Buddy Bowman, Bruce Griffen, Greg Sanchez, Paul Silver and Jozsef Nagy.

On April 1, 2001, RSA reaffirmed its commitment to achieving state and national dominance by forming a competitive alliance with the Ravens Aquatics Club of Raleigh (RACR), now known as RSA North. The merger brings together two of the top swimming programs in the Triangle allowing RSA to compete head to head against elite teams across the state and the nation.  Debuting at the 2001 Long Course State Championships, the combined RSA team stormed to second place behind the perennial state champions-MAC. First place is within our sites.

Continuing with that vision, RSA hired Dan Flack as Head Coach in April of 2002. Coach Dan is an ASCA Level 5 coach with extensive coaching experience at all levels, from developmental swimmers to Olympic medallists. Coach Dan and the rest of the coaching staff are eager to bring RSA into the ranks of nationally recognized swim teams while preparing our swimmers for success in sport and life.