Maine Masters (MESC)

Formed in 1988 at Bowdoin College after several regular swimmers (who had been Masters swimmers in other states), approached the Bowdoin Athletic Dept. asking to form a Masters team. Key initiators along with the Bowdoin aquatic coordinator held several organizational meetings where bylaws were created, and officers were elected. Hosted the first meet at Bowdoin in October of 1989.

From the article in the October 20, 1995 The Times Record:

Starting a Maine-based Masters program wasn’t a simple process. It took months of organizing and eventually submitting a proposal to Bowdoin. It became a reality, thanks to a core group of agitators that included Erswell, Forney, Joyce Brown, Sandy Potholm and Peter Packard.

The Maine Masters swim Club is an organized program of swimming for adults. Members participate in a variety of ways ranging from lap swimming to international competition.

In addition to the foundling group in the Brunswick area, Maine Masters members swim in eight to 10 pools across the state. The program’s popularity and growth has taken its founders by surprise. Maine Masters has become a well-organized structure in this state from a handful or brainstorming.

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2019 NELMSCHOF Inductees

Maine Masters Trailblazers

Sharon (Forney) Battistini

• 2019 Inducted into the New England LMSC Hall of Fame (Contributor - MESC Trailblazer)

• Aquatic coordinator at Bowdoin

• Coordinated Masters workouts at Bowdoin

• Maine Masters Swim Club President

• Meet Director for Bowdoin Meet

Sharon grew up in Toronto Canada in a family heavily invested in sport. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Physical and Health Education and immediately joined the staff at the University of Guelph as a lecturer and coached girls’ basketball and field hockey. She played on the Eastern Canada Field Hockey team prior to coming to the US in 1971 on a two year visitor status to work as an Outward Bound instructor at Dartmouth College. Forty-eight years later, she is still here!

She coached boys high school soccer in North Carolina for 8 years before returning to New England to live in Harpswell, work at Bowdoin and raise a family. So where does swimming come in? It has always been a love of life and the best way to keep fit!

Joyce Brown

• 2019 Inducted into the New England LMSC Hall of Fame (Contributor - MESC Trailblazer)

• Key initiator

• Positions served over the years President, Secretary, Registrar & Treasurer

Joyce held the position of Maine Master (Swim) Registrar and Treasurer for over 20 years. She also was a competitor and trained under Bowdoin’s famous swim coach Charlie Butt. She swam in many Maine Master Swim meets and competed in numerous National swim meets and placing 4th in freestyle at the Nationals held in Tucson, Arizona.

Joyce was also active in local swim activities. In 1978 she, with the help of Charlie Butt, started the Harpswell Swim program for the local school and held a two week summer swim program to teach beginners through advance Red Cross Life Saving program.

After her passing an endowment was established in her name to fund students in Harpswell and is administered by the Town of Harpswell. Thousands of Harpswell youths have learned to swim under Joyce’s swim programs.

George Erswell

• 2019 Inducted into the New England LMSC Hall of Fame (Contributor - MESC Trailblazer)

• Key initiator

• Director of Meets & Officials through 1999

• Annual George Erswell Meet at Bowdoin in October named after him

When George Erswell moved back to Maine from Atlanta in the fall of 1988, he was both surprised and dismayed to find there was no Masters swim program in the state. Although he could swim regularly at the Bowdoin pool, and compete in swim meets as a member of the New England Masters Swim Club, there was no program specifically for Maine swimmers. He began pestering Sharon (Forney) Battistini, then a pool monitor and lifeguard supervisor at Bowdoin, about getting a Masters program going in Maine. It was the right time and Erswell was the right person.

From the Maine Masters website:

An avid swimmer attending his first swim meet at the age of 10. He swam for Brunswick High and Bowdoin College. He continued his swimming career joining the Georgia Masters. Upon his return to Maine and finding no Masters program, he along with Sharon Forney founded the Maine Masters Swim Club. George was nationally ranked in his age group holding records in most of his events. At the age of 73 George died on August 24, 2000 at his home in Harpswell. In October 2000, Sandy Potholm changed the name of their annual Halloween Swim Meet to the George Erswell, Jr. Annual Swim Meet in his honor. It was all agreed it should be his. George is missed dearly and his impact on Masters Swimming in Maine will never be forgotten.

Sandy Potholm

• 2019 Inducted into the New England LMSC Hall of Fame (Contributor - MESC Trailblazer)

• Key initiator

• Positions served over the years Vice President and Treasurer

• Historian

• Editor of “Lap It Up” – cooking with the Maine Master Swimmers of Brunswick, Maine cookbook (a collection of favorite recipes published in 2008)

Growing up on Long Island Sound and loving the ocean, I never dreamed I'd step foot in a swimming pool. My idol was Esther Williams and that was about as close as I got to a pool. But somewhere along the way after injuring myself from running, I decided to lessen my chances by swimming at the Bowdoin College swimming pool in Brunswick, ME where I still live and swim. I took a WSI course to learn the stokes which opened up an opportunity to teach children how to swim.

“Then I discovered a group of swimmers who were already doing regular workouts. I decided to join them. Loving the camaraderie and how great my body and mind felt after swimming, I was eager to help George Erswell and Sharon Forney Battistini form the Maine Masters Swim Club (MESC) when they asked me. I don't compete any longer, but I do swim 5 days a week.

My biggest enjoyment continues to help new swimmers join MESC to promote physical fitness and give them the opportunity to compete.

John Woods

• 2019 Inducted into the New England LMSC Hall of Fame (Contributor - MESC Trailblazer)

• Newsletter Editor

• Meet results documentation

• Reviewer of Top Ten Times

John was a runner, and for 25 years, he ran more than 50 miles a week training for distance races. But, he was injured and unable to keep that schedule and tuned to the Maine Masters swim program. “Competing is a way of life for me. I have traveled all over the world with Masters running and I’m doing so now with swimming. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t swim.”