Team History

In the summer of 1969, the Kenosha Youth Foundation chartered our team as an A.A.U. Swimming Club with Mr. Jerry House serving as the first Head Coach.  The team didn’t host any meets and wasn’t named until the autumn of 1969 when the head coaching duties were taken over by Mr. Jerry Burmeister. The name Barracudas was chosen in a team vote and was picked over the second choice of Mudd Puppies by one vote. The deciding vote was cast by the coach.

At that time, the number of swimmers was limited to sixty but over the years the team has grown and encompassed over 120 swimmers from over 100 families.

In February of 2011 the Kenosha Barracuda Swim Team merged with the Village of Pleasant Prairie RecPlex to become an institution run team. The new team, the Pleasant Prairie Patriots, is one of approximately 64 swim teams in the state that is registered with Wisconsin Swimming and USA Swimming. These two organizations are the state and national organizations which establish rules and regulations under which swim clubs operate. These organizations maintain swimmer registration information, sanction swim meets, set time standards, etc.

The goal of the Patriots is to provide a, year round, competitive swim team offering high quality professional coaching and technique instruction for all ages and abilities. The Patriots are an institution ran team with a parent run booster/volunteer board.  The institution is the RecPlex, the country’s largest municipal run recreation facility.  Part of the facility is a state of the art 50meter training pool.

The goal of our team is to provide every member an opportunity to improve swimming skills and achieve success at his or her level of ability, from novice to international competitor.  All of our coaches, as members of USA Swimming, have access to the most comprehensive training and certification program for youth coaches of any sport in the United States. They provide assurances that the time children spend in swimming will be quality time.