Generations of Roosevelt High School students have taken the plunge into synchronized swimming, including this team pictured in the 1941 yearbook.
Writer: Barbara Dietrich Boose
Photographer: Ben Easter
Imagine a sport that requires the strength of a weightlifter, the speed and stamina of a runner, the precision and agility of a gymnast and the grace and skill of a ballet dancer. Now imagine applying all those skills simultaneously, in a swimming pool, moving in sync with dozens of other athletes — and smiling the whole time.
Welcome to the world of the Theodore Roosevelt High School Sharks, the longest-running synchronized swim club in the nation. Its annual pageant, set for April 23-25 in the school’s Clark Munger Natatorium, marks the club’s 100th anniversary. The club was founded just two years after Roosevelt opened and was its first club for girls.
“The Sharks have a legacy that’s stood the test of time,” said Kelly Caldbeck, a 1995 graduate and former co-president. “There is a lot of pride in the club across Roosevelt and in the community.”
Every winter, 40 Sharks spend 2 hours most weeknights, plus long Saturdays, practicing skills such as sculling (rapidly moving one’s hands to support or propel one’s body), the eggbeater (rapidly kicking one’s legs to rise out of the water) and the ballet leg (floating on one’s back with one leg pointed up toward the ceiling), all choreographed to music. Their efforts culminate in the pageant, a 2-hour, three-night extravaganza of swim routines and skits.
“Nothing compares to the pageant,” said Cecile Lorenzen, a Shark alumna from the class of 2021. “You’re doing your favorite sport with your best friends and showing other friends, family and the whole community what you’ve worked so hard on.”
Churn, churn, churn: To everything there is a season. This year’s Sharks are practicing for their pageant on April 23-25.
Strength in sync
Synchronized swimming became an Olympic sport in 1984 and was renamed “artistic swimming” by its world governing body in 2017. It demands breath control, core strength and team coordination, both above and under the water. The official rules, published by World Aquatics, require swimmers to maintain “an illusion of ease” that makes their movements “appear effortless and powerful without splash or struggle.” Their breathing must be quiet, not “sputtering” or “explosive or wheezing.”
None of that deters the Sharks. Senior Aubrey Smith, one of this year’s co-presidents, was hooked after seeing the pageant as an eighth-grader. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” she said. “It was intimidating trying out, but everyone is so supportive. It’s truly a sisterhood.”
That sisterhood starts early. First-year members, the “minnows,” are assigned senior “big sisters” for guidance and encouragement. Alumni stay deeply involved — judging tryouts each fall, attending the spring pageant and even performing alumni routines.
Lila Stafford, a Shark alumna and 1967 graduate who lives in Florida, remembers watching her older sisters, Mary and Jean, perform before joining herself. After high school, she attended the pageant for years and was in her 40s when she organized an alumni performance.
“I don’t remember anything else in my life that had such a high level of camaraderie,” she said. “Any time you meet someone who was in the Sharks, regardless of their age or class year, you automatically have this bond.”
Some of the first Sharks gathered for a photo for Roosevelt’s 1926 yearbook.
Homemade patches honored the first-year “Minnows.”
Props and costumes are a part of each pageant’s theme. This 1960s snapshot surfaced from the team’s “Sharkives.”
Student-led spirit
Alumni support helps maintain the Sharks’ traditions, and so does fresh energy.
Director Katherine Gamble, who teaches AP language, composition and creative writing, emphasizes that the group is student-led. Members teach new swimmers, choose the pageant’s theme and music, choreograph the routines, create the giant backdrop and raise funds.
First-year students organize potluck dinners and a spring banquet. Juniors write and choreograph routines. Seniors do, too, and serve as officers. The club also leads a synchronized swimming clinic for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade, which culminates with a simple routine during the pageant.
Service is part of the deal, too. The club organizes blood drives, bake sales and food-packing sessions for Meals from the Heartland.
“We’re learning to be leaders,” senior Charlotte McCoy said. “We gain the ability to communicate, collaborate and compromise when needed without people’s feelings being hurt. That’s going to set us up for success in the years to come.”
Full circle: The current Sharks continue a legacy built by earlier generations, including this team from the 1950s.
The lighter side
The club isn’t always so serious. Generations of Sharks recall some mischief, too, including the occasional unsanctioned party. Minnows have faced mild hazing, such as being prohibited from wearing makeup or fixing their hair for school. Live fish and even a live goose have landed in the pool during the pageant. Today, “deck dads” stand guard to ward off non-human swimmers.
“We had a reputation for being wild, but it was fun wild,” Stafford said. During her senior year, in 1967, she got in “a little trouble” with an allegedly risque strut into the pool for her solo, set to “Love Potion No. 9.”
Other Roosevelt students join the pageant as well. Some try out to be emcees and ushers and are voted in by club members. Others perform skits to entertain the crowd and give the Sharks time to catch their breath and change costumes between routines.
Former mayor Frank Cownie took a turn when he was on the Roosevelt boys’ swim team. “Pageant was a great event all through my years at Roosevelt,” he said. “It was quite a deal for the girls to get into the club. They had a lot of fun with it, and the boys did, too.”
Shark moms help, too, notably “Knox-ing” hair into gelatin-hardened buns of steel even chlorine can’t crack.
“The pre-show songs and traditions and just the bright lights, music and joy of performing after all that hard work — it’s the best,” said Barbara Baudino Hogan, a 2007 grad and Gamble’s sister. “You know from the moment it all starts how special it is.”
Hogan and Gamble share Sharks lineage with their mother, Kimberly Rockwell Patterson from the class of 1972, and keep in touch with alumni through Facebook and a group chat. That lasting connection is key to the club’s longevity.
“Why has the club had this staying power after 100 years? Why would former Sharks, who have years or decades of wisdom, experience and a worldview that expands far beyond high school, stand up for this club and celebrate its centennial?” Hogan said. “Aside from the dedication, talent, artistry and athleticism it takes to be a Shark, it’s a sacred space where young women can lead and have complete ownership. It cultivates a deep sense of belonging, lifelong friendships, philanthropy and connections that bring generations of women together.”
Shark conservation
The Des Moines School Board voted unanimously in January to approve funding to renovate Roosevelt High School’s natatorium. With additional support from the Ruan Family Foundation, Prairie Meadows and other donors, the roughly $1 million project will update the space and overhaul its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system. Construction is scheduled to start after this year’s Sharks pageant. For more information, visit TRHSfoundation.org.
