NLSA Marlins Swimming & Divingis organized into peer groups. This type of organization allows swimmers/divers to develop team unity with their friends at all levels and abilities. Swimmers remain in peer groups that grow and develop together! Swimmers are placed into a team by the head coach.
History
We broke away from the FM-Y team because we wanted the competition level Minnesota provides," says Mavis Falk back in 1972. Mavis, her husband Iven (whose sons swam with the Marlins) and Vivian Jacobson (mother of star flyer Lydell), were instrumental in the group's genesis. Dan Purcell, a one-time coach at the YMCA and a graduate student of Moorhead State University signed on as the club's first coach. Dan recruited so successfully that the Marlins (whose name then was the Moorhead Dragons) filled all the lanes to capacity. Between 50 and 100 hopeful swimmers churned the water that summer, in three-times-a-day workouts. With numbers like that, Dan needed help and his first assistant was Jo Eldevick, a member of a family that gave the Marlins, and, later, the high school team, several outstanding swimmers and a diver.
The Marlins provided coaching for divers as well as for swimmers during the first 2-3 years of the club's existence. The club dropped diving because experienced coaches were scarce and because few others clubs in the area supported diving. Since many swimmers had little experience or no competitive experience, the early meets were kept informal and intramural. The Marlins' first out-of-town competition took the team to Wahpeton. As the team spread its wings, two school bus loads of Marlins went to places like Brainerd, Morris, and Montevideo.
Within the next year, the club officially joined the national USS (then AAU) organization, and parents began learning the intricacies of officiating. Because little electronic help was available then, mounting a sanctioned competition meant assembling masses of helpers (e.g. three timers, and two land judges per lane.) Few adults except Mavis and Iven Falk understood how to run meets, so as the first big invitationals, the state organization provided key officials. Marlins' parents were instrumental in doing the planning necessary to inaugurate the Northern Lights Conference.
Back in 1972, few would have guessed how much USS swimming would ask of them, but both swimmers and parents agree that their efforts brought ample rewards, and that some of the most significant and enduring friendships grew due to those combined efforts of the swimmers and parents.
The Moorhead Marlins Swim Club has seen many changesfrom 1972 thru 1998. The team hit a low in the early 90's,with only 12 swimmers, until a student of Moorhead State University was hired to coach the team. He was former swimmer on a USS swim team and he had also competed at the college level in Division II. The team began to once again grow in numbers and an assistant coach was hired who also had past swimming and coaching experience. Under a more experienced coaching staff, the swimmers improved their techniques and times and qualified for state competition and for zones.
Unfortunately, college students graduate and move on and qualified coaches are hard to find. Rather than continued hiring college students and changing coaches every year, the parents of the Moorhead Marlins decided to pursue hiring a full-time coach. In 1998, a full-time coach was hired, he changed the team name to Marlins Swimming & Diving and later to NorthernLights Swimming Associationand has taken the Marlinsto a new level. The team improved dramatically and was on its way to unprecedented hights. The Marlins captured their first Class 'A' Minnesota STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS Title in 1999.
Since that title, Marlin swimmers have qualified for C finals, A/B finals, State, Zones, Junior National, US Open & Olympic Trials in record numbers and have flourished locally, regionally & nationally. The team has become a vital feeder program for the Moorhead High School SPUDS Swim Teams, and has or had representation fromALLof the local high schools, Fargo Davies, Fargo North, Fargo South, Dilworth/Glyndon,Park Christian, Oakgrove, Shanley & West Fargo and somehigh schools as far as Bemidji, MN,Brainerd, MN, &Detroit Lakes, MN in the spring/summer seasons.Present and past Northern LightsMarlin swimmers have or are currently swimming at the college level at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), University of North Dakota (UND), University of Minnesota (Uof M), Indiana University (IU), University of Arizona (U of A), Indiana University Purdue University Indiana (IUPUI), University of Iowa (IOWA), University of Utah (UTES), University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (UWEC), University of Wisconsin Lacrosse (UWL), University of Wisconsin Steven's Point (UWSP), Minnesota State University at Moorhead (MSUM), Concordia College (CC), St.Olaf (STO), Gustavus Adolphus (GAC), St.John's University (SJU), and the College of St.Bennedicts (CSB). In 2012 the Northern Lights Marlins came full circle and officially became a part of North Dakota Swimming following a 3 year trial period as an unattached team breaking from Minnesota Swimming. TheNorthern Lights Marlins havebeen marked by outstanding achievement since 1998 andcontinue to see growth& development.
Currently, they are led by Head Coach, Pat Anderson and an accomplishedveteran staff of coaches that have ALL competedat the collegiate level in swimming & diving.
