About Our Team
Our Philosophy
As a proud member of USA-Swimming (the national governing body of competitive swimming in America) the Academy Bullets Swim Club is committed to providing a safe, healthy, and positive environment for all participants in a program where beginners and nationally ranked swimmers can enjoy a great swimming experience.
Every Swimmer, Every Day.
Our coaches pride themselves on their ability to connect with their athletes on a daily basis. Swimmers can come to practice every day knowing that their coaches will give them positive, thoughtful feedback and will encourage them to push beyond the limitations they place on themselves on their way to reaching their full potential as both a swimmer and a person.
One Team
Though we swim at multiple sites throughout Illinois, we are all Bullets! All Bullets coaches actively work to get to know swimmers from every site, and we encourage this same active participation in our swimmers. We pride ourselves on our ability to create a positive team culture with a collective vision, purpose, and goal. Our coaches across every site work together and share ideas. It's not uncommon for groups across our sites to be doing the same practice on the same day. Though our practices are held at nine separate sites, at meets we are one team with one giant presence - all exhibiting our Bullet Pride!
We're not just building better swimmers, we're building better kids.
At the Academy Bullets Swim Club, your child will learn the importance of being a good person. Every year you will see Bullets raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Fund, participating in gift drives within our communities, or spending a day with Feed My Starving Children. We do more than teach swimming here. We teach commitment and compassion. We teach the importance of community. We teach perseverance and passion.
Springfield Site
The Springfield Location was born in August of 2013 after a merger with the Springfield Park District's Springfield-USA Swim Team (SUSA).
The site is home to around 50 swimmers (and counting!) from Springfield and the surrounding communities.
We practice at Eisenhower Pool and FitClub West in Springfield.
Our Coaches
Jeff Skeels
More info coming soon!
Caroline Gwaltney
More info coming soon!
Dylan Skeels
More info coming soon!
Gabby Gwaltney
More info coming soon!
Our History
Bill Schalz and his wife Robin founded the Academy Bullets Swim Club in the spring of 1994. At the time, the Bullets was the only coach owned swim team in Illinois so the concept was quite new. Bill and Robin wanted to create a team that was truly athlete centered, coach driven, and parent supported.
With only 60 swimmers that first year, Bill & Robin had their work cut out for them proving that the coach owned concept could and would be successful. They did not have to wait long to find out. In the first year, the Bullets to an 8th place finish at the Age Group State Meet and are the only team in Illinois Swimming History to finish in the top 10 in every state meet since its inception. In 1997, the Bullets made history again by becoming the first Illinois team to every win a national title when our men's team won the Speedo Junior National Championships in Orlando, FL, breaking three Junior National Meet records in the process.
On August 1st, 2006, Todd Capen was named Head Coach of the Bullets, after having spent five years as our Head Age Group Coach. Todd was a member of the 1997 team that won the Junior National Meet in Orlando, FL.
In 2012, the Bullets expanded. Approached about merging with two local teams, the Bullets moved into Riverside-Brookfield and Bartlett, IL. Since the Bullets have moved into those cities, the number of swimmers participating has grown tremendously, and both high school programs have seen their programs reach new heights. The expansion also took the Bullets to over 600 swimmers making us the largest team in Illinois.
Since 2012, the Bullets have added three new sites; Springfield (2013), Westmont (2015), and Schaumburg (2017). With the addition of these three sites, the Bullets are now are not only the largest team in Illinois; we are the largest team in USA Swimming's Central Zone!
Not only have we expanded to many cities across Illinois, we have also seen tremendous success in the pool. Bullets swimmers have competed in the World Championships, Olympic Trials, Paralympic Trials, European Championships, United States Olympic Festival and many USA Swimming International Teams around the world. In 2004, two Bullet swimmers (Saulius Binevicius and Darius Grigaliunas) represented Lithuania in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Visit the ILABSC website here.
Bill Schalz, Owner
Kelly Capen, Billing
Todd Capen, Head Coach