In the summer of 1971, Roger Schnackenberg and Mary Catherine Brown formed the Parsons Dolphin Swim Team through the Parsons Recreation Center, with a membership of 8 to 12 swimmers. Little is known about these early years except that there was also another Parsons swim team, funded by the Parsons Country Club, that competed with other town teams throughout southeast Kansas in what was known as the SEK summer league.

Around 1980 the Dolphins joined the Tri-State Swimming Conference which allowed us to compete during the summer months with some very talented teams from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. On July 24, 1991, with little money and even less experience, we held our first dual meet (just two teams competing) with the Pittsburg YMCA swim team. Pittsburg brought their own lane ropes to our pool, provided clipboards, stopwatches, volunteers and expertise. Thanks to the generous amount of help Pittsburg provided, the meet was a great success and the two teams celebrated with a potluck picnic at Forest Park following the meet. On July 4th & 5th, 1992 we hosted our first full Tri-State Invitational meet (all 12 teams competing) with about 90 swimmers competing.

In 1993, the Parsons Dolphins and the Parsons Country Club Swimmers combined to compete at SEK meets and in 1994, the Country Club ended financial support of their swim team leaving only one Parsons team, the Dolphins.

In the mid to late 90's, several older Dolphin members and their parents helped establish a high school team in Parsons, also called the Dolphins, which continues to compete in statewide high school events to this day.

Along with our SEK and Tri-State affiliations we also joined USA Swimming through the Missouri Valley LSC in the late 1990's. In 2002, due to the fact that we had grown considerably larger than the other teams in the SEK league, it was mutually agreed the Dolphins would withdraw from SEK. During this period, we became more involved with USA Swimming, competing in two to three meets during the winter months, which has made us truly a “year-round” swim club.

Prior to 1989, Dolphin coaches were unpaid volunteers like Mary Catherine Brown, Bill Kitchen, Muriel Saunders and Rhonda Dieker. Former paid coaches have included Mike Jacquinot, Tammy Taylor, Rhonda Dieker, Kali Pegues, Terry Whipps, Andres Chavez-Martinez, Donna Wilkinson, Terry Smith, Angie Workman, Ryan Heydenrych, Tyler Johnson, Erica Siebrasse, Adam Johnson and most recently, Kim Stewart.

Within the Tri-State Conference our team achievements include winning first place at Championships in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

* Thanks to Susan Simmons for compiling and preserving most of this information.