SAN ANTONIO — Northside Independent School District has abruptly ended its adult-based masters swimming program, citing a shift in focus to other swim programs for students in grades K-12. However, some members of the Alamo Area Aquatics Masters program, which operated under the United States Masters Swimming (USMS) organization at the Northside Swim Center, believe the decision was influenced by other factors.
Rita Kellogg, a member of the masters program for six years, expressed concerns after USMS introduced a policy requiring athletes to accept the possibility of competing with transgender athletes. Kellogg addressed the Northside ISD board on August 26, proposing two solutions: allow participation without USMS affiliation or remove the NISD Aquatics’ official designation as a USMS team.
Kellogg said, “They state that this is part of our requirements to be able to swim on our local NISD aquatics master swim team. That didn’t sit well with me and a handful of others.”…