Back in 1977, 9-year-old Joe Auer was a swimmer during the annual Summer Day Camp at Rollins College, which was sponsored by the Rollins School for Creative Arts. The popular “school”—which drew hundreds of children daily for three- to eight-week sessions—was begun in the early 1950s to provide arts, crafts and music instruction for local children.
But by the 1970s, it had expanded to include sports camps led by the college’s cadre of coaches. Harry Meisel, the now-legendary professor of physical education and director of aquatics, noticed young Joe’s prowess in the pool and pondered his familiar name.
Could this youngster be related to the Joe Auer who had played running back for the AFL’s ragtag Miami Dolphins? The Joe Auer who, in 1966—during the Dolphins’ first regular season game—had returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown against the Oakland Raiders? The Joe Auer who was named the Dolphins’ first MVP?
By golly, he was! Meisel, it so happened, had been a counselor at a sports camp in North Carolina that the elder Auer—who had led Coral Gables High School to a state championship in 1957—attended as a teenager. A racecar entrepreneur, he had retired from football and now lived with his family in Winter Park.
“[Meisel] said, ‘Hey, do you want to join the swim team?” recalls the younger Auer. “I said, ‘sure.’ I didn’t know it was year-round. And from there, it’s history.” Auer had just become a Blue Dolfin (yes, that’s the correct spelling), the competitive age-group swim program that had been launched by Meisel at the college’s Alfond Pool in 1972.
Today, the indefatigable Auer—head coach and owner of the USA Swimming-affiliated Blue Dolfins since 2007—has marshaled a formidable force of boosters to spearhead a soon-to-debut second pool at Cady Way Park, the club’s long-time home base alongside Showalter Field and across from Brookshire Elementary in Winter Park Pines.
In addition to the pool, there’ll be a trio of lighted, competition-level beach volleyball courts, upgrades to restrooms and locker rooms, and meaningful enhancements to surrounding green spaces. Hopefully, says Auer, the ambitious project will be essentially complete by the end of the year. “It’ll be done or almost done,” he adds. “It’ll get finished fast once it’s started.”
The new 25-by-50-meter pool, with 4,000 square feet of surrounding deck space, will be constructed by Myrtha Pools—based in Castiglione delle Stiviere, Italy, with its U.S. operations headquartered in Sarasota. The company, founded in 1961, assembles state-of-the-art aquatics facilities—often specifically for high-profile competitive events—using durable pre-engineered panels of stainless steel with watertight PVC membranes.
Recently, temporary Myrtha-built pools hosted swimming events and water polo championships during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The company’s permanent pools, however, come with a 25-year guarantee and typically last much longer.
Lake Highland Prep in Orlando and Seminole High School in Sanford, for example, have had on-campus Myrtha pools for about three decades. Elsewhere in the state, there are Myrtha pools at Florida Atlantic University, Florida State University, the University of Florida and Florida Southern College.
REMAINING AFLOAT
The L-shaped Cady Way Pool was built in 1962 by a private nonprofit, Recreation Association Inc., formed by local citizens and representatives of local civic organizations. The original no-frills facility was upgraded in 1966 and quickly made a splash that reverberated around the swimming world.
That’s when Catie Ball, participating in a swim meet as a member of the Jet Aquatic Club in Jacksonville, set a world record in the 100m breaststroke at Cady Way. (Ball would go on to win a gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and to set 13 other world records.)
The pool—initially open on weekends in May and every day in June, July and August—wasn’t owned by the city until 1980, when it assumed a $50,019 mortgage from the association—known publicly as the Winter Park Swim Club—which was “involuntarily dissolved” after becoming insolvent.
Still, since the property—sans pool—had recently appraised at $239,000, the city considered the takeover to be essentially risk free. One of the enabling resolution’s “whereas” clauses stated that while the pool would be a desirable community amenity, if the cost of its operation became “an unreasonable burden” then the land value alone would justify its acquisition.
Over the next three years, about $100,000 in public funds were spent on resurfacing and retiling, as well as replacing the filter and lighting system and converting a wading pool into a fountain. The Blue Dolfins, which had practiced at Rollins College and Winter Park High School, took up residence. And by the summer of 1983, attendance had jumped by 50 percent, to about 145 people per day.
Oh, but what a difference a decade or so makes. By 1996, the pool—still owned by the city but operated under contract by another nonprofit swim club—was in trouble. Trinity Aquatics (which had no connection to Trinity Prep) had fallen behind on its rent and had been unable to fund even basic upkeep. The pool was closed and, at least initially, there was talk of repurposing the site as a parking lot for athletic fields in adjacent Ward Park.
However, instead of bailing out of a troubled operation, city officials decided to spend another $165,000 for repairs. In 1997, with the pool refurbished, city officials entered into a $15,000-per-year management agreement with the Winter Park YMCA—which ran the operation (despite losing money) for 22 years before finally relinquishing the task, likely to the city’s dismay, in 2018.
The local Y—which had been rebuffed several times when it sought permission to build its own outdoor pool—already had a 25-meter indoor pool at its facility on Lakemont Avenue. In addition, it owned an outdoor complex that encompassed another 25-meter pool in the neighborhood of Eastbrook. That, perhaps, was more than enough to handle.
Auer and the Blue Dolfins, though, recognized an opportunity. Once the city was back in control at Cady Way, they quickly began to lobby for more substantial improvements. But there was little movement until about two years ago, when they proposed a club-funded approach through the Blue Dolfins Foundation to Parks and Recreation Director Jason Seeley.
“It’s nice when a project comes along that the city isn’t so much calling for and carrying out,” says Seeley. “Instead, it’s led by a group of people who care so much about the community that they’re willing to raise money and work together selflessly to make it happen.”
Adds Auer: “I’ve lived in Winter Park nearly my whole life and this [pool] is cool to be a part of. And it isn’t just for the Blue Dolfins. It’s going to benefit everyone. It’s going to be a place with a resort-like feel—a place where everyone is going to want to hang out.”
The project’s total cost is expected to be some $3.8 million—not chump change, even in Winter Park. But the Blue Dolfins, a nonprofit entity affiliated with USA Swimming, is footing the bill via grassroots fundraising efforts such as bowling tournaments, ice cream sales and partnerships with corporate entities.
In fact, there’s already a big-name sponsor—Orlando Health—which means that the new pool’s official name, which is still being discussed, could be the Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Pool at Cady Way Park. At least, that was the name used in a press release from the hospital system, but it may or may not be the final choice.
Still, says Auer, there remains a pressing need for fundraising even with the participation of Orlando Health. “We’re about 70 percent of the way there on the pool alone,” he notes. “And you have to raise money every year for things like lessons and scholarships.” Later, he adds, there’ll be another expansion that will include a second building with offices and a training room.
What really matters to the city, however, is that its initial (and only) outlay—
mostly related to electrical upgrades—will amount to only around $75,000. In addition to construction of the new pool and related upgrades, maintenance and operating expenses for the expanded facility—expected to total roughly $70,000 annually—will likewise be covered by the Blue Dolfins.
And, although the city will give up about $15,000 per year in rent from the swim club, it expects to raise perhaps twice that amount through rentals of the sand volleyball courts and a percentage of revenue from other swim club events, including meets that would require use of both pools.
Another plus: Since the Blue Dolfins will move its practices to the new pool, the park’s existing pool will become more available for recreational and instructional purposes. But wait just a minute. Isn’t all this just too good to be true? Well, in this case, apparently not.
When the project was approved by the city commission last September, no elected official argued that the effort was anything other than a win-win. Commissioner Marty Sullivan, echoing his colleagues, described it as “a quantum leap for swimming capabilities for the city” as well as for the Blue Dolfins.
“For years, Cady Way Pool has been the swim club’s home base—where we’ve built lasting memories and community ties,” says Lauren Bradley, whose 12-year-old daughter swims with the club’s Junior Group. “This vital facility was ready for transformation: not just repairs, but a complete reimagining into a vibrant space serving competitive swimmers and local families with exceptional aquatic facilities.”
INTO THE DEEP END
Life oriented around bodies of water has been important to residents throughout the history of Winter Park, which boasts the picturesque Winter Park Chain of Lakes. The Blue Dolfins, in fact, can trace its origins to Rollins, where competitive water sports and leisure swimming activities have been prevalent since the college was founded in 1885.
Lovely Lake Virginia offered an ideal location for canoeing, diving, sailing and synchronized swimming. All students, in fact, were required to demonstrate proficiency in swimming, and lessons were provided in a small indoor pool at the Lyman Gymnasium. (The building, which was later used for offices and theatrical productions, burned in 1974.)
The college didn’t get a proper competition swimming pool until the Alfond Pool was built in 1971 under the watchful eye of the no-nonsense Meisel, who had taught and coached various sports—football, baseball, tennis, tumbling—at Orlando High School, Boone High School and Bishop Moore High School before joining the college’s physical education faculty in 1962.
Meisel, a graduate of Stetson University and Columbia University who had fought heroically in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, had already coached a team and taught countless youngsters aged 5 to 12 how to swim at the Kingswood Manor Pool—which was rededicated in his honor in 2009, a year before his death, by the east side neighborhood’s homeowners’ association.
But in 1972, with 12 youngsters—including two of his five children—Meisel used the college pool to launch the Blue Dolfins, a competitive Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)-affiliated team. (USA Swimming had not yet been formed.) Meisel coached the Junior Group, while Skip Foster—who would later helm the Florida Gators to two SEC titles—coached the Senior Group.
“It was an assembly line with heart because my dad was of the opinion that if you want to have a great top, you’ve got to have a strong base,” says Kevin Meisel, a swimmer on that first Blue Dolfins team who still adheres to his father’s motto—“work hard with a big heart”—in his role as coach of the swim team at Park Maitland School.
That assembly line, which functioned at Henry Ford-level efficiency, churned out winners: 20 state championships, a slew of qualifiers for the Junior and Senior Nationals as well as future high school and college All-Americans. Many Blue Dolfins swimmers also became state and national record holders in multiple events and qualified for U.S. Olympics Trials.
By 1994, assisting Meisel, his swimming mentor, was none other than Joe Auer, who had attended Winter Park High School and had been a standout swimmer for the school’s dynastic swim team under Coach Don Prokes. The descriptor “dynastic,” by the way, is not hyperbolic.
Prokes ultimately led the Wildcats to 14 state championships and in 1990 was inducted into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association (FACA) Hall of Fame. WPHS swim coaches previous to Prokes had been Skip Foster (who, like Prokes, had simultaneously coached the Wildcats and the Blue Dolfins) and Tom Lamar—another FACS Hall of Famer who was colloquially known as “the “godfather of Florida swimming.”
“Me and my buddies, we didn’t lose a single meet while I was there,” says Auer, who captained the team to three state titles and, in individual events, was a nine-time All-American between 1983 and 1985. “I’m still friends with these people. It’s like a family.”
Auer then swam for Coach Randy Reese—who won four national titles at the University of Florida—and embarked on coaching stints of his own for such USA Swimming-affiliated teams as Stingray Aquatics in Miami and, in Central Florida, Highlander Aquatics and Longwood Aquatics.
Named to the Winter Park High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, Auer returned to the Blue Dolfins as head coach in 2007 bolstered by wisdom gleaned from a who’s who of role models. He also possessed an entrepreneurial streak that led him, along with his wife, Bess—an artist, author and expert on the then-emerging field of social media—to launch the Florida Swim Network (FSN) in 2010.
The network live-streamed coverage of high school and college swim meets—with commentary from the Auers—and was later hired to provide ESPN with televised coverage of swim competition at the University of Florida. FSN then launched a TV show called On Deck for Bright House Network (now Spectrum 13) and College Swim Day for the SEC Network. The Florida Swim Network was purchased in 2017.
As if he didn’t have enough to do, Auer also became swim coach at WPHS, his alma mater, in 2016, continuing the longstanding tie between the school and its most important feeder program. Says Auer: “They used to say that the Winter Park High School swim coach has put more people through college over the years than the G.I. Bill.”
The Wildcats remain a formidable squad. But Auer—known as “SwimmerJoe” on social media platforms—hopes to rebuild the juggernaut that dominated the 1980s and 1990s, when the school’s swimming and diving teams won 26 state champions (14 for the boys, 12 for the girls). He’ll have an edge by spotting and cultivating future stars through the Blue Dolfins.
LEGACY OF THE LAND
The tract that encompasses Cady Way Park is historically important to Winter Park, and its present-day use as an aquatics facility has a particularly poignant (and tragic) but little-known relevance—thanks to the fearless Howard Showalter.
In 1945, World War II veterans Howard and Sandy Showalter, along with their partner Ford “Buck” Rogers, established Showalter Airpark, with modest headquarters squarely on the site now occupied by the pool. The trio transformed 100 acres of pineland into the area’s first private airport, complete with hangars and grass runways.
In 1951, the company moved its operation to Orlando Municipal Airport after winning a contract with the city to manage the facility—which it did with notable success until selling out in 2017. But the Showalter family’s connection to aquatics—and to the mission of teaching strong swimmers and reducing drowning deaths—was solidified in 1965.
That year, at New Smyrna Beach, Howard lost his life while helping to rescue an 11-year-old swimmer who had become caught in a riptide more than 275 feet from the shore. Howard, aided by a lifeguard, saved the youngster, but in the process was pulled further seaward. Although the 52-year-old aviator—himself a former lifeguard—was reached with the aid of an inflatable raft, it was too late.
A donated 1959 Piper Comanche monoplane—the fuselage of which Auer is storing in his garage—will be displayed at revitalized Cady Way Park, perhaps atop the existing building, as a tribute to the property’s past as an airpark and as a tribute to Howard, a posthumous winner of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission’s Bronze Medal.
Auer has also located a vintage train engine that he hopes to acquire and to park on the grounds. Cady Way Trail follows the route of the old “Dinky Line” (the nickname for the notoriously unreliable narrow-gauge Orlando and Winter Park Railway). The original pool, in fact, was situated in a way that didn’t encroach on the tracks.
In addition, Auer envisions historic markers that commemorate the pool’s Olympians and the property’s previous uses. The tract was once the location of the Overstreet Turpentine Company and Ward’s Lakemont Dairy, which featured a “milking parlor” with plate-glass windows that allowed crowds to gather and watch as cows were milked by machine.
Most importantly, with a new pool to augment the old one, there’ll be increased capacity for swimming instruction. “Florida’s the No. 1 state for drowning,” notes Auer. “The Blue Dolfins want to put a stop to that.” The city offers swim lessons for infants and for children aged 1 to 5. As those programs are completed, young swimmers can then move on to more advanced instruction offered by the Blue Dolfins.
In any case, the expansion and renovation project is a labor of love and the Blue Dolfins are nearing completion the only way they know how: as a team, one stroke at a time. “We just go to meets and try to kick everybody’s tail,” says Auer. “It’s just what I want to do. I can’t imagine life without it.”
Adds Seeley: “My hope is that Cady Way Park will become a more vibrant stop along Cady Way Trail. Instead of being a place where hundreds of cars come in for softball games [at Ward Park] in the evening and then leave, we’ll have a park where lots of folks are riding their bikes and coming to enjoy the greenspace, playing volleyball or pickleball or using this pool.”
HOW CAN WE HELP?
Whether you’re a swimmer or not, you can help make certain that this historically important aquatics facility and the surrounding park become the crown jewels that they deserve to be. Please consider sending a tax-deductible donation to: The Winter Park Blue Dolfins Foundation Inc., 201 Flame Avenue, Maitland, 32751. Or, for more information, email cadywayparkinfo@gmail.com.
DOLFIN’S TALE
The Blue Dolfins swim club operates under the auspices of USA Swimming, the national governing body of sanctioned, competitive swimming. USA Swimming has more than 2,700 clubs and more than 376,000 individual members.
As members of an affiliated club, Blue Dolfins swimmers compete in a variety of USA Swimming-sanctioned meets. Florida Swimming—one of 59 local swimming committees under the USA Swimming umbrella—hosts the Florida Age Group Championships (FLAGS) and Senior Championships. USA Swimming hosts larger competitions, such as Sectionals or Junior and Senior Nationals.
Many meets are open to any swimmer registered in USA Swimming, but some require a swimmer to qualify based on times. A swimmer’s times are kept in a national database maintained on the USA Swimming website.
Once a swimmer reaches high school, he or she may have the opportunity to swim for their school swim team. This is governed by the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) and has its own set of rules and regulations.
There are other types of swim leagues, including YMCA swimming, country club and summer leagues, and swim teams registered under the Amateur Athletic Association (AAU). But the Olympic Committee recognizes USA Swimming as the authority on swimming in the United States.
To make the competition fair, swimmers are divided into competitive age groups: Here are the categories:
- Pre-Flippers Group (5–8). Focuses on the basics of swimming, including the four strokes, proper technique, body position and kicking.
- Flippers Group (4–10). Builds on the Pre-Flippers level, developing stroke technique and preparing swimmers for more advanced training.
- Pre-Junior Group (7–12). A less advanced group for swimmers who are developing their skills and preparing for
the Junior Group. - Junior Group (9–14). A more competitive group for swimmers who are dedicated to improving their skills and participating in swim meets.
- Senior Group (14–Up). For older, highly competitive swimmers who are often preparing for high school and collegiate levels.
Swimmers advance through these groups based on a combination of age, skill and coaching evaluation. Coaches assess a swimmer’s ability to demonstrate proper technique, meet specific group requirements and show dedication to training before recommending advancement. Between all categories, there are generally 150 or more swimmers—although more are expected once the expansion is complete in Winter Park.
In 1987, Olympian Jilen Siroky got her start as a Blue Dolfin. She would go on to represent the United States at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where she competed in the B Final of the women’s 200-meter breaststroke.
In addition, USA Down Syndrome Swimming National Team member Lauren Bergquist is a current Blue Dolfin. She lettered in swimming at Winter Park High School and has won medals in international competitions held by the Down Syndrome International Swimming Organisation (DSISO).
The Blue Dolfins’ season is year-round. Key times of the year include the summer, which is often when meets are scheduled, and the fall/winter, which focuses on building up for championship meets.
There are two Blue Dolfins clubs in Central Florida. The original is in Winter Park (at Cady Way Park, 2529 Cady Way) and, in 1994 a second club was opened in Oviedo (at the Oviedo Aquatic Complex,148 Oviedo Boulevard, Oviedo).
The Oviedo club is coached and owned by Charlie Rose, who was an NCAA All-American at Florida State University and is also swim coach at Oviedo High School, which he has led to four state championships. Rose is also Auer’s childhood teammate with the Blue Dolfins.
Cost to join the Blue Dolfins in Winter Park varies based on the specific group and the number of swimmers in a family. Monthly fees range from $100 to $225, with discounts for multiple members. Additionally, there’s a yearly registration fee of $30 for the local club and $95 for USA Swimming plus a $10 team support fee.
There are four coaches in addition to Auer: Scott Caron, head coach, Junior Group and director, Summer League; Kim Burke, head coach, Senior Group; Kailey Morris, head coach and director, Fins Group (swimmers of all ages who are just beginning or hoping to learn more about competitive swimming); and Randi Topps, developmental coach.
All are highly credentialed, with backgrounds in teaching, coaching and competitive swimming. Burke even started out as a Blue Dolfin under Meisel. For more information and to register for a tryout, call 407-937-9129 or visit bluedolfinswphs.com.