New Colorado Springs “Super Club” COSA Building Its Own Aquatics Facility

by Spencer Penland 30

August 19th, 2021 Club, News

At the beginning of this summer, Colorado Springs saw 4 club teams in the area consolidate into a large new club team. Cheyenne Mountain Aquatics (CMA), Colorado Springs Swim Team (CSST), Altitude Performance Swim Team (ALPS), and Woodmoor Waves (WOOD) have now merged into a team called Colorado Springs Area Swimming (COSA). COSA currently has approximately 500 swimmers on its roster, making it one of the largest clubs in Colorado.

COSA CEO and investor Cheryl Bisque describes the merger as a natural move, saying “COSA Swimming is the result of a common vision and efforts by the Head Coaches of our four merging teams.” She goes on to add that with COSA’s size, they will be able to provide “top-notch instruction for all levels of swimmers, from new bubble blowers to world champions.”

One of the former clubs that now make up COSA, Woodmoor Waves, was experiencing growth on their roster, but was having issues procuring enough pool space for practices. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the 4 clubs worked closely together in order to share pool space and time. They also came together to host quad meets, in order to adhere to the COVID protocols issued by the state and local governments. With the teams working together to share pool time, and competing against each other in meets, the beginnings of the merger were beginning to take place.

At beginning of June, COSA issued a press release announcing the official merger of the 4 teams. Their first summer was a successful one. It began with COSA sending a swimmer to Wave I of the Olympic Trials. Caroline Bricker competed in the women’s 100 breast in Omaha. Bricker went on to win women’s individual high point at the Austin Sectionals meet in July, then traveled to Irvine for the Western Speedo Summer Championships, where she recorded 3 A finals appearances. As a team, COSA finished 2nd at the Colorado 13 & over state meet this summer, and posted a top 20 finish at Western Senior Zones.

In addition to the swim team’s successful first few months, COSA has big plans. They’re currently in the process of building a new aquatics facility in Colorado Springs. Bisque is the investor on this project, and has put money down on the 2012 Olympic Trials warmup/warm down pool, has an agreement on a plot of land, and is working with an architect.  The plan currently is to use the 2012 Trials pool as an 8-lane 50m pool, that can also be configured into a 20-lane 25 yard pool. COSA also intends to have a variety of support facilities, including dryland areas for the swimmers, as well as spectator seating and a swim shop. Additionally, they plan to make the facility workable for high-altitude training camps.

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swimfan69
2 years ago

This concept is ridiculous. Sounds like a bunch of subpar coaches trying to combine forces to become extra-subpar. Falco is trash, Stromberg is trash, Schumm is a great guy but not sure as a coach, Woodmoor’s coach is irrelevant. Caroline Bricker will carry this team, and the millionaire’s pool won’t even be built by the time she’s off to college. Good luck all, y’all will need it.

Last edited 2 years ago by swimfan69
Mountain Man
Reply to  swimfan69
2 years ago

Pretty harsh words from swimfan69! Two of the coaches are trash, one is a good guy and the forth in command is irrelevant? Who are you recruiting for?? Caroline Bricker isn’t the only swimmer produced by these four teams. One of the teams had two former swimmers in the 2021 USA Olympic Trials. The same team had another former swimmer represent Canada in Tokyo.

Bob Steele
Reply to  swimfan69
2 years ago

Swimfan89-your comments about the new COLORDO SPRINGS AREA SWIMMING brought tears to my eyes and made it hard to sleep soooo I reply. Your words are too strong in commenting about 4 teams combining to be a better team as some USAS teams have as many as 1,500+ swimmers. These coaches are not “TRASH”. They are good people doing the best they can for a sport they love and helping kids learn how and experience “being the best they can be” Not everyone can or wants to be an Olympian.
Coach Stromberg is NOT trash. He has coached age group and NCAA top D2 university teams for 48 years. He wrote the county COVID variance which was approved so… Read more »

Mountain Man
Reply to  Bob Steele
2 years ago

I’ll summarize..swimfan69…you are a JERK!

Pat Bains
2 years ago

It is always good to have more pools in our region to grow the sport. “Super” team is a stretch. Some minor summer league teams joining some better teams as CSST and Cheyenne Mountain Aquatics is good and maybe they will be more competitive. But team size does NOT make a Competitive team. It just means more swimmers. I have been involved with Club Swimming for over 20 years and have raised 6 swimmers. So far 5 have made it to the Collegiate level. I have seen the effects of good and bad coaching and can say that after this long Pike’s Peak Athletics would be the Number 1 choice for “Competitive” Swimming in the Colorado Springs area. They have… Read more »

Mountain Man
Reply to  Pat Bains
2 years ago

Sounds like you are ‘recruiting’ for PPA. You have an obvious bias and agenda…

KevinM
2 years ago

Know you are from Wisconsin when you scan through the headlines and read this as “new Colorado Springs supper club”… and want to read more

Plastics
2 years ago

Consolidation is inevitable and is necessary to save the sport given the financial uncertainty of smaller clubs. Kudos to innovative thinking. We need more of this.

Dan
2 years ago

Is it the 2012 or 2021 Warm up pool? Is it 8 lane or 10 lane pool as the competition pool was a 10 lane pool.

HJones
Reply to  Dan
2 years ago

It is the warm-up pool. The competition pool was repurposed into a 10-lane, 35-yard pool just outside of Boston.

thezwimmer
Reply to  Dan
2 years ago

It’s surprising to me that 9 years later the 2012 pool would still even be available. I wonder where it’s been all this time…

Remember Me?
Reply to  thezwimmer
2 years ago

I’m curious as to why the 2012 warmup pool wasn’t the 2016 warmup pool.

Erik
Reply to  thezwimmer
2 years ago

The answers you seek lie within the failed complex in papillon, Nebraska area.

Admin
Reply to  Dan
2 years ago

2012, which was an 8 lane warmup pool.

Confused pool
Reply to  Braden Keith
2 years ago

Did usa swimming ever announced a public bid for this pool? Many usa swimming programs would have liked the opportunity to bid on it if it was out there..

Admin
Reply to  Confused pool
2 years ago

I don’t know the exact background on it, but I believe another club in Nebraska bought it, and at that point it belonged to that club or their creditors – not USA Swimming anymore.

HJones
2 years ago

Legitimate question on my part that I don’t have an opinion on–are these “super clubs” good for USA Swimming? Should the LSC be doing more to provide financial support to start-ups and smaller clubs as to not discourage the entry of new teams?

Anti-colonialism
Reply to  HJones
2 years ago

No, they’re really not good for anything except boosting their Club Excellence rankings.

Person
Reply to  HJones
2 years ago

Dude just let us have our team we decided it was a good idea.

Anti-colonialism
2 years ago

Not even sure why we even have individual teams at this point. Let’s just all compete as 1 team so we can all say we’re winners!

Mel
2 years ago

Pikes Peak is the better option.

Marie Wilson
Reply to  Mel
2 years ago

👎

MAndrew fan
Reply to  Mel
2 years ago

Pikes Peak is currently open for drop in lap swim, $15.00. They just did annual maintenance and the pool is crystal clear!