Our History

Registered as a non-profit entity with the State of South Carolina and North Carolina, we are a 501c3 nonprofit corporation.  Our Board Members, Doug Sheafor, Michel Miller, Alaina Hoover, and Heidi Bernard, and Deede Turner have combined extensive experience with swimming, parenting swimmers, and coaching as well as law, accounting, physical therapy, nursing and teaching. Our Board is passionate about the value of swimming as a life sport and wants Swim Carolinas (Swim Charleston) to be a place to excel in swimming, build friendships, ensure fitness, develop character and create opportunities for leadership in the community. Cathy’s beliefs about what can be taught through swimming are revealed in the attached piece she wrote in 2015 about what coaches should teach swimmers: 10-life-lessons-every-age-group-coach-teach-swimmers.

Originally founded as a swim team in Charleston named Swim Charleston, Swim Carolinas is now primarily a lesson provider in the Lake Norman area. Our founding Coach, Cathy Sheafor, started coaching youth swimmers at the age of 18 when she started a summer league team at her neighborhood pool. Since then, Cathy has been instrumental in starting and running 2 year-round USA teams. She has experience coaching both summer league and year-round teams in North Carolina, Missouri, and South Carolina in the Lake Norman area. Over the years, she has developed a passion for using swimming as a vehicle for empowering young people to become youth leaders who serve in their community. She believes strongly in combining research-based swimming skill instruction with character education. She seeks to develop fast swimmers who are also good human beings. She is thrilled about this unique opportunity in Lake Norman to make children safer in the water.

Cathy's daughters, Haley Sheafor and Tirion Sheafor are seasoned instructors with over 10 years of instructional and coaching experience. As lead coaches for Swim Charleston, their 10/u program received state recognition as Program of the Year in 2021. Both are trained experienced early childhood educators with a masters degree. They balance fun with work, visual instruction with auditory instruction, and kinesthetically-focused training with intellectually-focused training. Swim Carolinas believes swimming is healthy (physically, mentally, and socially) and encourages young swimmers to participate in swimming and other various sports and activities so that they may find their life passion.  

Note:  If you wish to read about our Mission and our Pillars of Excellence, please click on the About tab.