The Steeple Station Stingrays were formed in 1989 by Robbie Marion, a resident in Jefferson Station Neighborhood and a Steeple Chase resident. Neither of these men had any kids at the time! Since Jefferson Station and Steeple Chase were the only two neighborhoods on Sever Road at the time, they joined forces so they could have enough swimmers and called the team Steeple Station to show community support! Residents from River Colony Subdivision on highway 120 were also invited to swim on the team. 

In 1989, the swim meets and practices were held at the Jefferson Station neighborhood pool, which is a 4 lane pool. Due to the length of the meets and increase in team size, the decision was made in 1990 to use Steeple Chase pool for meets since it is 5 lanes. This is when they started using both pools for practices.

The team used diving blocks from 1989 to 2003, when the league made a rule change which required the pools be 4 feet deep in order to use diving blocks.

Up until around 1994, names of swimmers and swim times were hand-written on ribbons, Each child was awarded a ribbon for each meet. If a child did not place, an improvement ribbon was given. If the child did not improve a time, a ribbon was given that said "Keep Trying!"

Diane Powell and Dianne Wherry coordinated a very organized parent volunteer group.  It was understood that parents worked each swim meet that their child participated in.  Parents were given a parent handbook at the beginning of the season that contained all important information. We were very fortunate to have great parent support! Other teams complimented us on how smooth our meets ran, how friendly our parents were and how well-behaved our kids were! We had a lot of school teachers in our volunteer group, so that helped!

When Jackson Elementary opened in 1994 , we began using their parking lot (with the school’s permission) for parking at swim meets. This helped the neighborhood parking situation dramatically.

Weekly parent newsletters were written by Nancy Morrison and given out each Monday morning with ribbons. 

During the early 1990’s, there were very few swim teams close to our pool.  It was common for us to travel to Peachtree Corners and Snellville for meets. Council members from Steeple Station assisted in the early meets of both Richland and Edgewater to help them get their teams formed.

Our concession stands were very profitable! Wendy Bjorg, whose house backed up to the pool, coordinated the concessions for the first few years.  She would cook the hot dogs at her house and then bring them down to the meets in a crock pot. We used to have pizza parties after our home swim meets.  We bought the pizzas from Hungry Howies for $5!

County meets used to be held at Briscoe Park in Snellville until 1998 when they moved to Emory University, then to Georgia Tech in 2005. 

Thank you to Nancy Morrison and Debbie Blackmon for contributing the above information!

If you have any information about the history of the team, please send any information, documentation, pictures, etc. to [email protected].