“It’s been a dream, and then making that dream a reality has taken some time, but this is the grand opening,” he said.
Agon is a competitive swimming team that is a member club of USA Swimming and United States Masters Swimming, according to Agon’s website. It offers instruction and training to swimmers of a range of ages and ?ability levels.
Agon is a nonprofit organization in Ellettsville, Ind., serving surrounding communities with an opportunity to become better swimmers.
“Basically, it’s struggle,” Gold said. “A big part of the philosophy of the team is how we can grow through struggle, so it’s not something to avoid but truly ?embrace.”
Gold is the head coach and founder of Agon. He has 10 years of coaching experience, as well as 18 years of experience swimming competitively, according to the Agon website. As a swimmer at IU, he wants to reach out to people of the IU community to become a part of Agon.
The fees for this organization are monthly, and Gold said he believes Agon is as cheap as people will find when looking for a swimming organization to become a part of.
“I can tell you pretty much across the board the team dues are the lowest out there, especially in this area, for what we are ?offering,” Gold said.
He said he believes this is a great opportunity for swimmers of all levels because they will be training with experience.
“Mostly, at every level, they’re going to get expert coaching. From learn to swim, all the way up to master swimming,” he said. “They’re going to get ?someone experienced.”
Practices and lessons will all be held at Edgewood High School, which has both a competition pool and a teaching pool, according to the Agon website. Edgewood High School is about 20 minutes away from the IU campus.
Agon has four groups, each escalating in terms of the swimmers’ experience. The four groups are lessons, silver, black and masters.
Each group will have multiple designated practices each week, Gold said, and swimmers can come to as little or as many of them as possible.
Agon will have its second information session from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Edgewood High School. Attendees can expect to learn the basics such as practice times, fees and information about Gold himself.
If attendees should choose to do so, there will be forms they can take home to register with USA Swimming and more information about the fees required, Gold said.
For more information, follow Agon on Twitter, ?@Agon_Inc, or on the Facebook Agon Swimming page. Additional information may be found on its website, agon.us.
