Relationship with swim club has endured

From the Milestones column in the Indianapolis Star North Edition, Saturday, February 19, 2005

By James A. Gillaspy

   John Diercks wasn't looking to expand his horizons when he agreed to help mend the Azionaqua Swim Club in 1977.

   Yet here he is, still calling the shots, 28 years after the Zionsville club first sought his advice.

   Now, as the club's long-distance general manager, the longtime Lawrence North High School swim coach is directing an expansion of the club's pool.

   "I actually wasn't looking at this for a career," Diercks said of his relationship with the private club, "but it's just happened."

   Though he retired after 25 years as Lawrence North's coach, Diercks still teaches history and government there and still commutes from his home in the Broad Ripple area.

   As for his second career in Zionsville, there is no end in sight.

   "It's a great job," he said.

   Azionaqua, he added, has been a great place for the sort of family center the town couldn't afford in 1958, when residents pooled their money to give their children a local spot to hang out.

   "A year-round recreation program is a need that all of us in this area feel," says a recruiting flier that helped unite 525 first-year members in the enterprise that oversees the club's 12 acres at 4875 Willow Road.

   "A combined swimming pool and recreation club, which would be open for both summer and winter activities -- here at home -- would largely satisfy this widespread need."

   The pool opened in 1960.

   Today, the club boasts more than 1,100 household memberships. The numbers have grown steadily, as have club improvements.

   Since 1977, when Diercks diagnosed a bad concrete pour and suggested renovations to stop pool cracking and gutter crumbling, the money invested in Azionaqua's recreational facilities has topped $1 million.

   The latest improvements will transform the diving well into a six-lane, 25-meter pool next to the main pool.

   The extension, roughly the same size as the diving tank, will offer another shallow area for children and a chance to have swim meets and classes without closing public access to the 50-meter pool, Diercks said.

   "He is just an incredibly conscientious person," said Myrene Brown, a 15-year resident in Sugarbush Hill, and longtime Azionaqua member whose children competed on the club team. "I think every year some project is brought up to the board, so every year when you go, there is some new improvement to the pool."

   Brown helped with town efforts that led the National Wildlife Federation to certify Zionsville as a community wildlife habitat in 2000. She said Diercks' interest in natural habitat shows in his development of the club's grounds.

   Trees have been planted along the pool's perimeter, the fence line was pushed back to bring grass and woods into the pool setting, and feeders have been situated by pool decks to lure hummingbirds.

   "I don't know any other pools that do that," said Brown, who recently secured Azionaqua's status with the federation as a certified backyard wildlife habitat.

   Actually, some things attractive to Azionaqua members stem from Diercks' own formative years at the Riviera Club in Indianapolis, where hummingbirds were commonplace.

   He liked the trees by the pool there, too, even though as a young lifeguard he had to fish leaves from the water.

   Diercks had resumed a working relationship with "the Rivi" in 1977. He was coaching the private club's team when Azionaqua founders and board members sought his help with repairs.

   With the job done, they asked him to stay on.

   "The rest is history," said Diercks, who gives credit for the club's success to community leaders, club staff and resident volunteers.

   "Their idea was not to be an exclusive club. It was to provide clean, safe recreation for all the children in the community. And I really think we've done that."