In the Spring of 1961 Dot Norris and life guard Skip Norris decided to train some of the advanced swimmers to swim competitively.  Skip became the coach and Dot arranged for the first and only dual meet of the season against Lake Paulinskill.

Delores Bersen and her husband John helped devise an area where the swimmers would train by building an improvised “turn board” made of nothing more than a long log anchored 25 yards from the first beach dock (where the diving board used to be) and this is where our swimmers trained by swimming to the log and back.

The following year Dot Norris became the Chairman of the Swimming Committee and during the next phase of the development of the swim team, Dot Norris, her husband Chet Norris and Carl Peterson constructed a free-standing, anchored, “A” frame supported dock with turn boards to replace the log mentioned above.  The anchors were truck tires filled with stones.  This system had reasonable success and we competed.  The newly formed Lake Shawnee Swim Team was accepted into the Bi-County Swim League and swam against Budd Lake, Lake Parsippany, Cranberry Lake, Byram Sperry Springs, Culvers Lake, Walkill Lake and Shongum Lake at different times over the course of the next 20 years.

Improvement was needed and the Board allocated money for swim lanes (4 of them) behind the Clubhouse.  These lanes were made by scooping out the Lake bottom by hand and using drag-line to deepen the area.  Pipes were driven into the bottom to support two docks 25 yards apart.  Competition continued to get strong and there were some very exciting meets. 

Ice took its toll on the pipe supports every winter.  Spectator space was limited at the Clubhouse so again the swimming committee went to the drawing board and drew plans for a second dock at first beach with a system of removable turn boards.  This location gave the swim team deeper and wider lanes and expanded spectator space.  As of this writing in September, 2006 the Lake Shawnee swim team belongs to a different league (NJRLL) and continues to have some very exciting meets at this very same location.  We are known to have one of the best facilities in the league.

During the early years, communication with competitors and the crowd went from just plain hollering to the use of a bull-horn and then to a portable amplifying equipment with long extension cords.  There is now power at the main dock for our P.A. system. It was also during these early years that the tradition of honking around the lake when we won a meet started.  At that time many of the Lake residents were only there during the summer and many did not have phones.  So driving around the lake and honking was how the swim team let everyone know they won.  This tradition still continues today. 

 All records were kept in yards.  In 1974 Championships were held in Lake Shawnee and programs cost 25 cents, were hand typed and did not include the swimmers’ times.  There were not as many swimmers in the league then as there are now and lifeguards were the officials.  Today, in order to officiate at the championship meets, officials need to be certified.

In 1981, the Lake Shawnee Swim Team joined the North Jersey Regional Lake League (NJRLL). NJRLL has been in existence for thirty-seven years of which we have belonged for the past twenty-five (as of this writing).  The league now consists of eleven lake teams competing against each other and is split into the Small and Large Lakes Divisions.  Lake Shawnee has taken first place in the Small Lakes Division in the past with the most recent years being in 2005 & 2006.   The eleven teams currently in the league come from:  Cranberry Lake; Denville; Flanders Valley (the only pool); Lake Forest; Lake Shawnee; Mendham; Parks Lakes; Randolph Park; Roxbury; Shongum Lake and Shore Hills.  We currently use a meter course to track league records and times. Programs at the championship meets were $5.00 in 2006 and included names and entry times of hundreds of swimmers in the area along with league records.

During the August flood of 2000 (17” of rain in 6 hours) the main dock at first beach suffered extensive damage and the 2nd dock was damaged beyond repair.  The tight knit Lake Shawnee community came together like family to tend to their neighbors and beaches to help clean up, repair and rebuild.  The swim team didn’t miss a season.  In August of 2002 we hosted trials and finals in Lake Shawnee and again with the help of our community we saw over 1,000 people come through our neighborhood during this very successful 2-day event.

A listing of our past coaches dating back to 1962 has been posted to the website for those that are interested.   The swim team also now maintains a Top 5 times spreadsheet (for Lake Shawnee swimmers only) for each event in each age group along with single relay records.  These times only go back to 1981 when the meter course began and will hopefully be maintained from here on out.  There are a few league records from the ‘70’s noted that Lake Shawnee swimmers held.  A copy is available from the swim team.

Please note that this piece of history regarding the Lake Shawnee Swim team is a compilation of  research done by Jeanie Ubhaus with excerpts taken from Lake Shawnee News articles written by Dolores Bersen in September, 1983 (AND HERE’S HOW IT ALL STARTED) and Carl Peterson in August, 1993 (TOUCHES AND TURNS).  If anyone has additional information that could be added to the History of the Lake Shawnee Swim Team please contact me.

The previous text was the original article in its entirety. The additional information noted below was added in August, 2011.

As the Lake Shawnee swim team approaches its 50th season we would like to add a few tidbits to the history of our team.  Since this article was first published in 2006, Lake Shawnee claimed another first place title in the Small Lakes division in 2009.  Quite a few updates have been made to the Top 5 Times/Records spreadsheet with new records set and new swimmers’ names finding their way into history.  In 2010 a new event was added to our dual meets.  An 8 & Under Freestyle Relay was added to showcase our youngest swimmers and increased the number of events contested in every dual meet to 55.  As a result, a brand new record was set in 2010 by the relay team that swam this event for the first time.  Congratulations!

Almost 11 years after the flood of 2000, Lake Shawnee suffered another blow during the weekend of March, 13 & 14, 2010 in the form of a dam breach.  This breach was the result of heavy rain and snow melt.  Eric Wilsusen wrote in his “initial breach” message that The National Weather Service placed the total rainfall for this storm at 5.53 inches but with approximately 24 inches of snow melt a total of 8 inches of rain fell causing an overtopping of the dam, flooding the roadway and Gatwyn’s lower parking lot.”   The river of water ate away at the earthen embankment resulting in a major breach of our dam.  The process of dealing with the State NJ DEP to finalize plans to repair this breach took 14 months and 29 days.  On June 10, 2011 final approval was granted.

As a result of this breach, the Lake Shawnee swim team has had to overcome some obstacles.  The biggest of course was the fact that we did not have enough water in the lake to host meets or practice in the swim lanes.  The coaches became quite creative with their practices and hats off to them for working through this while keeping it fun for the kids.  We also have to thank Lake Forest for opening up their facilities to our team so we could at least practice starts and turns in actual lanes with turnboards a couple of times a week.  We also have to thank all the other member teams of the NJRLL for allowing us to host all of our home meets at their facilities for two seasons.   Our team may have suffered financially without the revenue from hosting home meets, but without the league’s cooperation and support our swim team might not have continued.  Lake Shawnee Swim team has been competing for 50 years since the start of the team with a handful of swimmers to teams with over 70 swimmers and every number in-between.  It is still so nice to see the neighbors come out when we honk around the lake and even better to know that in years when we have had too much water to years with no water the team has endured. 

At this time we thank our community, our neighbors and fellow teams for all the support throughout the years.  As we approach 2012 and our 50th official season of competition, Lake Shawnee is looking forward to home meets.  We will once again host Trials and Finals and we will lean on the Lake Shawnee family to come out in numbers to volunteer to help out with this major event.

Cheers to the next 50 years…