In an era where club mergers are dominating the youth swimming landscape, Planet Swim and Sporting Jax Aquatic Club will decouple on April 1, according to an email sent to the teams earlier this month. The two clubs are located in Northeast Florida around Jacksonville.
“Effective April 1, 2026, Planet Swim LLC and Sporting Jax Aquatic Club have mutually agreed to conclude our partnership and move forward independently,” the email reads. “While we are disappointed that the merger did not unfold as we had initially envisioned, we believe this decision is in the best long-term interest of both organizations. Over the past several months, the leadership team worked diligently to align operations, culture, and strategic direction. Despite those efforts, it became clear that our missions and long-term goals were better pursued separately.”
The email went on to cite the “financial impact” of the merger, among other things.
The two clubs announced a merger in summer 2025. At the time, they said that “At the heart of this merger is a shared vision that values character, community and excellence.”
“Together, the organizations are building a competitive swim club that not only nurtures future champions but also invests in the development of young athletes as teammates, leaders and individuals.”
The merger came along with some high-profile names. Former University of Florida associate head coach Steve Jungbluth became the director of swimming and the recently-retired John Morse, who spent 40 years leading the Nashville Aquatic Club, became the club’s president.
One of the United States’ most-decorated Olympic swimmers Caeleb Dressel also joined the club, training under Jungbluth who was his sprint coach as an undergrad at the University of Florida.
Sporting Jax Aquatic Club was founded in March 2025 as the swimming arm of a professional minor league USL soccer club. It was formed in the shadow of the former Loggerhead Aquatics, which ceased operations on a Tuesday night in March 2025 before Sporting Jax was officially formed on Wednesday morning.
The well-resourced soccer club, which counts former NFL stars Fred Taylor and Tim Tebow among its ownership group, recently announced a proposed 15,000 seat stadium in St. Johns Town Center. Ricky Caplin, the venture capitalist behind the soccer club, is also the founder of the swim club.
The only thing that Steve has brought to this team is anger, loss of great coaches, and the loss of too many swimmers to count.
I have found pockets of poor culture always starts at the top. At a new club/pool that now hosts Pro Series events and a recent World Cup outside of Chicago, the culture described in this article is eerily similar. Angry and grumpy coaches causing swimmer turnover. President with no swimming, coaching, leadership, or pool/facility management experience calling the shots (except for those that would cast them in a poor light).
From personal experience after my beloved coach was fired for not wearing shoes, my swim career drastically went down the drain when working with Steve JUNGBLUTH! He is a mean old bald man and doesn’t know how to regulate emotions (like anger for example) around children. The atmosphere was tense especially when he had a coffee mug (infamous rumor) and made me want to quit the sport I so dearly loved. And don’t even get me started on Temi…girl version of Steve. They hired her as head coach while she was only attending a couple practices a week. Once there was only 5 people left in the group they fired her. Then they hired a SCUBA instructor. So now they… Read more »
The people who were hurt the most from this adventure were the kids who give their grit and heart everyday for some sort of stability! It’s sad when folks put themselves before the kids!
When you put two coaches together who both have strong personalities and very different approaches to the sport, things don’t always line up the way you hope. We’re all passionate, we all care deeply about our swimmers, and sometimes that intensity can clash instead of complementing each other.
At the same time, we as coaches know that even the tough partnerships can teach us something. Every coach brings their own strengths, experiences, and perspective to the deck. Even when styles don’t mesh, there’s still value in the lessons learned and the clarity it gives us about the kind of environment we want to create for our athletes.
Not every coaching dynamic is a perfect fit, but we stay… Read more »
The saddest part about this whole adventure is the ones who have gotten hurt the most are the kids in the water putting in endless hours of dedication and grit trying to keep stability in their swimming! Thanks Steve!
When the merger first happened we were promised a bigger better team with more resources instead we had something else. My coach was kicked out of the team after putting it all together. The energy on the pool deck was not the same. After our coach was out Mr.Jungbluth attempted to run the program and it was a disaster. Now he has destroyed the relationships with planet and left my former program destroyed the site doesn’t even exist anymore everyone quit or moved to the other locations.
Surprise the partnership lasted this long. One group working for the kids. One Coach working for a payday.
Yep. One coach that is all about Him!
Honestly think he means well in a weird sense, but just didn’t work out when you force out a beloved coach because we wouldn’t wear tennis shoes.