Lanier Aquatics (LA), a local youth swim team program, has been in existence in the Gainesville/Hall County area for more than fifty years and was originally known as the Gainesville Swim Team, becoming Lanier Aquatics in the 90’s.  LA has historically been one of the best small club teams (fewer than 100 swimmers) in the state and consistently places in the top three at the Georgia State Championships every year.  LA has grown and is now in the Medium Team Division with Georgia swimming placing 2nd at the 14U State Championships this year.

Recent team accomplishments include:

• 1st Place Northeastern Divisional Championships 2021 - March 2021
• 2nd Place Medium Team Division (Division III)  2021 Short Course Georgia Swimming 14U State Championships, February 2021. 
• 3rd Place Northeastern Divisionals 2018 - March 2018
• 1st Place Small Team Division 2015 Senior State Champions
• 1st Place Small Team Division 2014 Long Course Senior State Championships at UGA in July 2014
• 2nd Place Small Team Division 2014 Short Course Georgia 14U State meet at Georgia Tech, in February 2014
• Highest scoring men’s team from Georgia at the Senior Sectional Championships held in Charlotte, NC in March, 2014
• 1st Place Small Team Division 2013 Short Course Senior State Championships held at Georgia Tech in December 2013

LA has had Junior and Senior National qualifiers, Olympic Trials qualifiers and many swimmers that have moved on to college programs including UGA, Auburn, Ga. Tech, West Point, Air Force Academy, NC State, UNCA, Nova Southeastern, Rhodes College, Tampa, Florida Southern, Cornell and many others.

Coach Crystal Tavares will take over as Head Coach this fall as long time coach and founder of Lanier Aquatics, Jim Young, retires after 56 years of professional coaching. Coach Crystal is about to enter her 15 year of professional coaching, 5 of which have been at Lanier Aquatics under Jim Young.  She is an ASCA level 4 Certified coach and is currently serving as the Northeastern Divisional Rep to Georgia Swimming's Technical Committee.  

The LA program philosophy is based around the question of where we want to see the youth of today when they reach adulthood and what kind of experiences do they need during their developmental years in order to become positive, achieving, successful, contributing members of our community and nation into their 20’s, 30’s. 40’s and beyond. We believe that the LA approach to youth development through the medium of competitive swimming offers unique lessons that greatly contribute to the experiences needed for life-long success. As far as the sport itself goes, we are not so concerned with how fast a swimmer is at age 10 or 11 but whether or not that swimmer is still in the sport through their high school and hopefully college years and still enthusiastically participating and improving.