The F.A.S.T. summer swim program in Macon County has been a huge success for more than two decades, boasting a conference championship every single summer for 21 years. F.A.S.T. (Franklin Amateur Swim Team) is a summer program that works with anywhere from 150-190 children of all ages each summer, teaching them to swim competitively. For some swimmers, the swim team has become a direct pipeline to higher education dreams.
A lifelong love of the water
Coaches Dwain and Dina Picou have been coaching swim teams of all levels for many decades. Dwain Picou started coaching in Florida and has been coaching for more than 50 years. The couple originally met at a pool in Florida and have been together as a true dynamic duo, on and off the pool deck ever since.
For many years, they coached the Macon Middle School (MMS) swim team, the Franklin High School (FHS) swim team, and the F.A.S.T. swim team. Only in the past few years have they stepped back from the MMS program, which they built from the ground up, to help support the FHS program.
The F.A.S.T. summer swim program’s success is a testament to the Picous’ and others’ dedication. The team has won the last 21 years of Mountain Swim League Championships, including this season’s meet held July 21 at the Macon County Rec Park where the teams compete and practice.
Key to success
“The main thing we do that makes our program so successful is the way we utilize our older kids to mentor the younger ones,” said Dwain. “We train the high school kids with the FHS program, where they get a lot of our coaching. That carries over into summer swim, when we have those high schoolers voluntarily helping teach the same things to the young kids.”
F.A.S.T. is designed to foster leadership skills in the swimmers, with older and more experienced swimmers mentoring and training the younger ones. Even when kids have graduated high school, many of them still return to help with the younger swimmers, volunteering hours each week to give back to a program they believe in. Each lane of younger kids has a high schooler (or college student) coaching and training them.
“Our older swimmers know they’re setting the tone for the next generation,” said Dwain. “That sense of responsibility is what turns a team into a family and keeps them coming back year after year to continue that.”
F.A.S.T. is set up to have two separate practice times – an early practice for beginner and amateur swimmers and then a later practice for intermediate and higher-level swimmers, which allows the experienced swimmers to coach the amateur ones. Nathan Jessup, age 11, started in the lower-level practice several years ago. This year, for the first time, he was asked to join the more advanced swim practice, which consists mostly of kids at least two years older than him. Nathan qualified for All Stars in all six of his events during the very first swim meet of the season. A swimmer can qualify for All Stars at any meet during the season if their time is a qualifying time.
Nathan explained why he loves the swim team so much.
“I really love everything about being in the water. It is the most freeing feeling! I think my favorite thing about swim team though is getting to help the younger kids and showing them how fun swimming is. They really look up to us older swimmers, so you have to make sure you’re doing your best to be a good role model to them.”
Nathan, Kenna Keyworth, Lana Walker, among many others, are consistent winners in their events. On average, F.A.S.T. has anywhere from 10-20 swimmers who qualify to go on to the Junior Olympics, the next level of competition. In fact, Franklin has been conference champions every year for the Mountain Swim League since 2004, and this season has proven to be no different. The F.A.S.T. team competed in the All Stars conference meet in Jackson County, boasting first-place finishes from Ali Janoe, Owen Baillio, Lana Walker, Zoi Walker, and Kenna Keyworth.
From small town swim to college dreams
Several of F.A.S.T.’s older swimmers are now competing at the collegiate level on swimming scholarships. Natalie Claire Ballard, a rising sophomore at Roanoke College, is on a partial scholarship and said her time with F.A.S.T. and the FHS swim team left her more than ready for the next level.
“I felt very prepared for college swim life by participating in F.A.S.T. and the FHS swim team in high school. Practices are obviously going to be more intense in college, but I definitely felt like I knew what I was doing for college swim from how we trained at FHS,” she said.
Luke Borgmann, who joined the FHS swim team after moving to Franklin in his sophomore year, is also on his collegiate swim team for Piedmont University in Demorest, Ga. Ballard and Borgmann, along with college student and former FHS teammate Rylee Cassada, all return from college and help with F.A.S.T. to coach during the summers. They even compete in exhibition races just for fun, since they have aged out of competing in summer traditional meets.
More recently, 2025 high school graduate Zoi Walker has also signed to swim for Piedmont University, as she becomes another successful college athlete born from the Franklin swim programs.
Borgmann and Ballard both credit their time with FHS and F.A.S.T. swim team with preparing them for competing at the collegiate level, even though they came from a small-town program. Borgmann moved to Franklin his sophomore year and said that being on the swim team helped him make friends he still considers to be like family.
“It’s a very welcoming environment. I was really nervous when I started, but the kids were so friendly and accepted me immediately. It helped me meet people and find a group where I belonged, in a town where I didn’t know anyone,” Borgmann said.
His younger sister, Brooke, also joined the swim team around the same time. Borgmann fell in love with the sport and decided to pursue it at the next level. He continued to work on his main stroke, butterfly, until he was able to achieve a college scholarship.
Ballard and Cassada agreed that the friendships and “swim family” are definitely the best part of the team, which was a sentiment echoed by kids of all ages at a recent swim meet.
F.A.S.T. Coach Melissa Unger, who is also the Macon Middle School Swim Team coach, echoed that the reason she volunteers to coach the swim team in the summer is because of the “environment, where everyone feels like family. The swim meets are really fun, especially for the kids, because there’s so many kids running around and hanging out.”
Pictured above – Between 150 and 190 children compete in the summer swim league known as F.A.S.T. – Franklin Amateur Swim Team. The Team just competed in the Mountain Swim Conference in which they have won the championship for the past 21 years.