BUTLER TWP — Many words can be used to describe members of the Seneca Valley Swim Club.

But dedicated tops the list.

"This is not mandatory," said team coach Tom Donati at a recent morning practice at Alameda Pool. "Ninety percent of Seneca Valley kids are sleeping right now. These kids are dedicated, to be up at 6:30 and headed to swimming practice."

"These kids will end up swimming 12,000 to 13,000 meters today," added Donati. "They'll leave here and go lift weights for an hour, go home and take a nap, and come back to the high school pool and swim from 4 to 5:30 this afternoon."

But not all of them are kids.

The club features 148 members between the ages of 10 and 20. And not all of the swimmers are from the Seneca Valley School District. In fact, the club and the district are not connected.

One of the older members is Butler High graduate Molly Evans, who is fresh off a record-breaking freshman season at Carnegie Mellon University.

"I've been involved with (SVSC) for about five years," said Evans, 19. "It's more intense than a lot of summer leagues.

"The summer is all about building a base," she added. "Our first big meet at CMU is in December and if you didn't start training until September, there's no way you'd be ready for it."

SVSC also includes swimmers from Mars, Knoch, Ellwood City, Riverside and North Allegheny, but SV swimmers certainly have left their mark.

Kylie Gamelier (University of Toledo), Stacie Safritt (Pitt), Rose Snyder and Emily Wolfarth (both headed to Penn State) all starred on both the high school team and the club team.

Some swimmers excel at the youth level, but there comes a point when they have to decide whether or not to take the sport seriously enough to put in the practice time meeded to keep pace with their peers.

That was the case with Wolfarth.

"I joined the club my freshman year, but only came to practice a few days," she said. "But I really wanted to get a workout and started to come every day.

"It's really not that bad," said Wolfarth, who also competed in cross country and track at Seneca Valley. "Once you do it a few times, you get used to it."

Often, youngsters are discouraged from participating in something simply because their friends are doing it.

But SVSC provides a positive and productive outlet.

"I joined because I wanted to," said Madisen Tretter, 13, of Cranberry Township. "All my friends were doing it and it's a good way to stay in shape."

Young athletes in almost every sport are realizing that to stay competitive, they must put more time in on the basketball court, weight room or, in this case, the swimming pool.

"It's a sport that takes up 10 months out of the year now," Donati said. "This isn't just about staying in shape for the high school season."

Donati has been in charge of both the SV high swim teams and the club team for more than a decade.

"Some people wear different hats, just coaching the high school team," he said. "I really don't look at the high school team and this team as being separate. The school district allows me to coach both and have use of the pool at the school.

"Some of the kids here don't go to Seneca and people have asked, 'How can you coach the enemy?'"

"I don't look at it that way," he added. "All these kids are out here working hard and trying to get better. That's what I care about."

SVSC has competed in U.S. Swimming meets in Cleveland, Buffalo, N.Y., Youngstown, Ohio, Maryland and at Miami (Ohio) University.

Eleven club members are going to the sectional meet at Indiana University in Bloomington later this month.

They include girls swimmers Rachel Tano, Rachel Szymkowiak, Elyse Dobrick, Ann Marie Bilott, Myers, Wolfarth, Evans and Snyder. Dan Gutmann, Chris Baker and Jon Szakelyhidi also will compete.

They all qualified for the event within the last year and will strive to take the next step: a berth at the national meet in Minneapolis in August.