Four LSCs Build Innovative MEGA Swim Festival Around Pan Pacs
What if a major international swimming championship could inspire more than the elite athletes selected to compete in it?
If young swimmers from across the United States could train together, race together and then sit in the front row as the world’s best competed in many of the same events only a few miles away?
That innovative idea became the inaugural MEGA LSC Swim Festival, bringing athletes from Middle Atlantic Swimming, Indiana Swimming and North Carolina Swimming for a four-day experience hosted by Southern California Swimming.
100 Fly at Mission Viejo
The camp culminated in two days of competition at the historic Marguerite Aquatics Complex in Mission Viejo. Each night, the athletes traveled to the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine for front-row seats at the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships.
For the first time, four Local Swimming Committees coordinated an athlete-development program around a major international elite competition. The result was much more than another age-group meet.
An Innovative Idea Takes Shape
The concept began in 2025 when Steve Roush, Executive Director of Southern California Swimming, presented it to fellow LSC leaders at the USA Swimming Annual Summit.
“I floated the idea at our USA Swimming Annual Summit,” Roush said. “Why not have our young swimmers train together and experience watching the world’s best compete in the same events? Let’s set up a two-day meet in Mission Viejo.”
That idea developed into a collaboration among Roush, Jamie Platt of Middle Atlantic Swimming, Tony Young, executive director of Indiana Swimming, and Amy Faulk, executive director of North Carolina Swimming.
Greg Lockard and All Sports International coordinated the travel and logistics that brought the four delegations together in Southern California.
Training, racing, travel, education and access to elite international swimming were combined into one program. The athletes could challenge themselves in the pool while building relationships with swimmers from other parts of the country.
From Four LSCs to One Swimming Community
Swimmers arrived wearing the colors of their respective LSCs. Many had never met the athletes training in the next lane or sitting beside them on the pool deck.
A few days in training camp quickly changed that.
Swimmers from four LSCs discuss training, racing and building new friendships during the MEGA LSC Swim Festival in Mission Viejo.
Swimmers from Pennsylvania made friends with swimmers from North Carolina, Indiana and California. Athletes who might otherwise have known one another only as names on a heat sheet shared workouts, meals, team activities and nights in the stands at Pan Pacs.
For Platt, those personal connections were central to the festival’s purpose.
“We brought together swimmers from California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana,” Platt said. “They’re getting the chance to meet each other, spend time together and build relationships.”
Each delegation brought its own regional identity, but the athletes soon discovered how much they shared.
“These athletes are getting to know swimmers from other parts of the country,” Platt said. “For many of the East Coast kids, this may be their first trip to California. They get the training, the competition, the Pan Pacific Championships and the entire Southern California experience.”
Several Athletes Shared Why the Idea Worked
The strongest evidence of the festival’s success came from the swimmers themselves.
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Everett Heiser, an incoming sophomore representing Indiana Swimming and Zionsville Swim Club, welcomed the opportunity to race athletes he would not ordinarily encounter during a typical season.
“It’s been fantastic getting new competition,” Heiser said. “We really don’t swim against many people out West or in Middle Atlantic, so it’s fun meeting new people and finding new competition.”
Heiser, a freestyle and backstroke specialist, also appreciated a part of the Southern California experience that swimmers from Indiana rarely enjoy.
“We’re in Indiana, and we don’t swim outside much, so swimming outside is an absolute treat,” he said.
Outdoor backstroke presented its own challenge. Without an indoor ceiling to help him remain aligned, Heiser adjusted by using the lane lines for guidance.
“I kind of have to put my chin on my chest so I can see the lane lines and base it off there,” he said.
His final assessment captured the combination of competition and enthusiasm the organizers hoped to create.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Heiser said. “I’m happy to have this opportunity to swim fast against fast people, be outside, go watch Pan Pacs and cheer loudly for my friends.”
Ava Buhrman, a member of the Class of 2029 representing Middle Atlantic Swimming and Cumberland Valley Aquatic Club in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, arrived in California only a week after competing at Junior Nationals.
Buhrman had raced in Irvine several times before and called Southern California her favorite place to compete. The MEGA Festival, however, offered something different: the opportunity to develop relationships with swimmers from other parts of the country.
“I think it’s really cool because I’m going to be able to go to these meets and talk to people and cheer for people that I wouldn’t know before without these opportunities,” Buhrman said.
Asked if she would participate in another MEGA Festival, Buhrman did not hesitate.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’d do it again next year.”
Training in the Sun and Racing at Mission Viejo
The festival gave visiting swimmers a full taste of summer in Southern California.
They trained under the sun and raced at one of the country’s historic outdoor swimming venues, with the Saddleback Mountains rising beyond the competition pool.
The final two days gave the athletes an opportunity to put the lessons and energy of the camp into action. They represented their LSCs while competing against unfamiliar swimmers from across the country.
The scoreboard recorded the times and places, but racing was only one measure of the experience. The festival was designed to challenge and inspire developing athletes while helping them set goals for the next stage of their swimming careers.
Front-Row Inspiration at Pan Pacific Championships
Each night brought another important part of the experience.
The swimmers traveled from Mission Viejo to Irvine, where they watched athletes representing the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan and other Pacific nations compete at the Pan Pacific Championships.
Each night a different wardrobe:
Night 1: Red
Night 2: White
Night 3 Blue
They met Olympic champions and mingled with elite athletes and coaches, including longtime swimming broadcaster Rowdy Gaines who spoke to the group with his trademark enthusiasm and contagious energy! They collected autographs and watched their idols perform on the international stage from only feet away.
The connection between the two events made the experience especially powerful.
During each day, young swimmers trained and raced. At night, they watched Olympians and world champions perform many of the same events at the highest level. Record breaking performances from Japan, Australia, and USA among others.
The international athletes in Irvine could relate to these up and comers. They once attended age-group camps, traveled with regional teams and pursued the same gradual improvements as the swimmers gathered in Mission Viejo.
Pan Pacs gave the MEGA athletes a close-up view of where that work could eventually lead.
An Innovation That Exceeded Expectations
The MEGA LSC Swim Festival demonstrated how major international competitions can create opportunities that reach far beyond the primary meet.
By aligning an LSC training camp and competition with the Pan Pacific Championships, the organizers connected grassroots athlete development directly with the sport’s international stage.
The festival also showed what Local Swimming Committees can accomplish through collaboration. Four LSCs shared their ideas, leadership and resources to create something none could have produced in quite the same way independently.
For Platt, the athletes’ response confirmed that the new model worked.
“They are learning so much from this experience,” Platt said. “This trip has already exceeded our expectations. We are already talking to Greg Lockard at All Sports International, who coordinated the event, about next year.”
The swimmers returned home with new racing experience, a closer view of elite international swimming and friendships that could continue through future sectional, junior national, college and national-level competitions.
They trained hard and raced harder. Met their heroes, collected autographs, soaked up the Southern California sun and, most importantly, had fun.
What began as an idea floated at the USA Swimming Annual Summit became an innovative model that four LSCs are already preparing to build upon.
Photos and athlete interviews by Jack Hallahan/Swimming World.
