Over the years I've mentioned that my daughter swam with Americus Blue Tide coached by Kirk Myers and later my granddaughter. After a move to Albany, GA my granddaughter began swimming on the Flint River Rapids. Some of the posters here have had ties with Kirk as well. Last night my daughter forwarded the following to me. I thought some of you might be interested. A short bio for those of you who don't know who Kirk Myers is also included in this bit of new.
Talk about swimming in Southwest Georgia and you invariably come up with
> the name Kirt Myers. Myers was the visionary coach of the Americus Blue
> Tide from its inception in 1975 until he bequeathed it to his successor,
> Tim DeMott, in 1997. Myers was elected Georgia Coach of the Year four
> times and coached the U.S.A. National teams for the 1991 Olympic Festival
> and the 1993 Short Course World Championships. Myers was instrumental in
> the development of swimming in Southwest Georgia, having a hand in the
> development and expansion of swimming throughout the region. Myers brought
> elite level swimming to Southwest Georgia with an ABT relay team breaking
> a World record in the 200 meter short course medley relay for women. Myers
> ultimately created a program that reached its pinnacle with Southwest
> Georgia's only aquatic Olympian, Angel Myers, who won three relay
> Olympic gold medals and three Olympic bronze medals. In addition to her
> Olympic medals, she won
> twelve Pan Pacific medals and seven Goodwill Games gold medals. Angel was
> a captain of the 1996 U.S. Women's Olympic Swimming team.
> Part of the vision that Myers held was a unified competitive swimming
> program that would encompass the region surrounding Americus and Albany,
> Georgia. For a time ABT succeeded at that mission with both Americus
> Blue Tide and Albany Blue Tide being successful as one unified program.
> However, the hold was tenuous and Albany Blue Tide lapsed into a program
> that became the Flint River Rapids.
> As fate would have it; in November of 1998 Jeff DeMott, brother to ABT
> successor, Tim DeMott, took the reins of FRR and turned the fading program
> into a strong area rival to ABT. For the past twelve years the two
> programs have competed as strong partners and competitors until now.
> Today we are excited to announce the reunification of South Georgia
> swimming: This joining of the two primary swimming teams in the South
> Georgia Region, ABT and FRR marks a return to the vision that coaching
> legend Kirt Myers had for Southwest Georgia Swimming. Americus Blue Tide
> will join with the Flint River Rapids to become: Americus Albany Area
> Aquatics or Quad-A. The name, Quad-A, stands as a testament to the
> mission of our founder, Dr. Kirt Myers as representative of the highest
> levels of achievement possible in USA-Swimming where swimmers strive to
> achieve AAAA times to mark their excellence of performance. In addition
> Southwest Georgia's premier team will remain a family concern with both
> coaches, Jeff and Tim DeMott remaining as co-coaches of the Quad-A
> program.
