In the summer of 1988, not long before Becky Carlson was about to embark on a hall of fame basketball coaching career, she stayed busy during the summers managing the Iola Municipal Pool.
It was a time when kids spent pretty much every hour they could down at the pool, one of the few respites from the brutal Kansas summers.
“You could just tell we had some really good swimmers,” Carlson noted.
With that thought in mind, she approached Phyllis Nelson, whose daughters were avid swimmers as well.
How about putting together a team, Carlson suggested, who could compete with other swimmers from the area, like Chanute, Parsons or Burlington.
That little spark turned into the Iola Seahorses, which wraps up its 35th season July 15 with the Southeast Kansas League Swim Meet at Iola’s Riverside Park.
Carlson and Nelson reflected on the team’s early goings, and how the Seahorses program has now stretched across generations of families.
“I don’t know how it is now, but a lot of parents would drop off their kids as soon as the pool would open at 1, and they’d swim until we had a break from 5 to 6, where they’d hang out at the park,” Carlson recalled. “Then, when we reopened, they’d be right back here.”
It turns out many of those regulars were developing into skilled athletes.
After Nelson agreed to take on the coaching duties, Carlson reached out to other pool managers to find competitions.
The first happened that summer of 1988.
“I loaded 13 swimmers in our full-sized van, which was probably illegal,” Nelson laughed, “and we headed to Burlington.”
It was on the way when one of the youngsters noted the fledgling squad needed a mascot.
“I remember a girl in the back that said Iola already had the Colts and Ponies and the Mustangs and the Fillies,” Nelson said. “‘Now we have the seahorses.’”
The name stuck, although some chiding was in order.
