A proposed boundary change between two Local Swimming Committees (LSCs) could significantly impact swimming on the east coast.
New England Swimming’s House of Delegates will vote on August 25 on a proposal to change the boundary between New England Swimming (NESI) and Maine Swimming (MESI) LSCs.
The proposal, submitted by Commonwealth Swimming’s Paul Mueller in accordance with USA Swimming Rule 604.2 (change of LSC Boundary), would move the towns of Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield, Benton, Oakland, Belgrade, and Rome from the Maine Swimming LSC and add them to the New England Swimming LSC. Unlike the recent full merger between Ohio Swimming and Lake Erie Swimming last month, there appear to be no plans to fully merge both LSCs at this time.
The boundary change comes as the two LSCs have experienced different membership trends. In USA Swimming’s 2024 demographic report released in March, the New England LSC was among the fastest-growing regions in the country.
New England Swimming saw an increase of 444 swimmers in 2024, growing from 7,420 to 7,864 swimmers. Meanwhile, Maine Swimming’s numbers declined significantly, dropping from 644 swimmers at the start of the season to 310 by the end, a loss of 334 swimmers.
A major factor in New England’s membership increase was the creation of 12 new clubs within the LSC. A large part of the new clubs comes due to the disbanding of Gator Swim Club, leading swimmers to head elsewhere and new teams (some former Gator affiliates) popping up.
The boundary change’s biggest competitive impact would involve Colby College, home to Maine’s only Olympic-sized pool, which would become available for New England Swimming-sanctioned meets. The 50-meter facility is widely considered one of the best indoor long course venues in the Northeast, comparable in speed and amenities to championship facilities like Brown and Harvard but with larger spectator capacity and more warm up space.
Colby Swimming and Diving is an NCAA Division III program and a member of NESCAC. Despite the facility’s quality, it hosted only two long course meets in 2025, one of which was hosted by a New England team.
Exciting move. More meets at Colby mean greater opportunities for Maine swimmers and added capacity for New England. Instead of everyone traveling to Brown, Harvard, or MIT for long course, bringing more swimming north benefits both LSCs.
Just merge at that point!
A merger wouldn’t work for liability reasons since New England Swimming is currently a defendant in a sex trafficking lawsuit, so they’re basically just strong-arming Maine Swimming out of existence.
What lawsuit?
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dis-crt-d-mas/117604356.html
It looks like they weren’t able to get all of the counts dismissed, which means it’s either going to trial or some kind of settlement.
As a former Maine club swimmer I would like to point one thing out as a serious issue for Maine membership. There are practically no programs left in the southern most part of Maine (York county) Several of the YMCA programs were cut during COVID and USA Club teams haven’t really filled the void. Not to mention there are hardly any pool comparatively down there. If Maine swimming could get more programs that would certainly help there membership issue. My former Y team (does not exist anymore) would have 100+ swimmers and most of them would be registered with USA swimming as well.
Well, USA Swimming is now financially of reach for any family in Maine who can’t afford to travel to Boston or Providence 4 times a year.
How does Maine Swimming feel about this change?
NE Swimming manifest destiny
At this point, NE Swimming has just carved out the majority of the large Maine teams, they should probably just merge fully.
New England Swimming’s map looks like a new Texas congressional district: https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/governance/lsc-maps/lsc-zone-map.pdf#page=33
Hope does an LSC exist with 300 swingers. That’s just ridiculous
They would have fun at their end-of-season banquet I do suppose!
Every team that has joined New England over the last few years has done so because they wanted to, not because New England forced them.
I don’t think I said they had. I assumed no team was forced to against their will, but I think my point still stands.