WE'RE A SWIMMING FAMILY
Four kids who grew up in the pool started a swim school.
WHERE IT STARTED
Year round practices, summer swim teams, and vacations to the Outer Banks. We grew up around the water — our best family memories happened here.
Molly, San Antonio — 1996
THE CERTIFICATE
The family moved to San Antonio. All four kids swam with Alamo Area Aquatics. Molly, the youngest, came up through the learn-to-swim program.
There's a photo of her — three years old — holding up her level completion certificate. Big smile. Simple moment.
That certificate became the blueprint. Here's where you are. Here's what's next. The level system at Old City Swim School traces straight back to it.
WE GREW UP. WE KEPT SWIMMING.
The Emerys scattered across colleges and careers — Naval Academy, competitive swimming, coaching. different paths, same foundation.
Swimming shaped how all four of them saw discipline, teamwork, and what it means to earn something. It wasn't just a sport. It was the family operating system.
THEN WE STARTED A SWIM SCHOOL
Erin, Sean, and Meg started Old City Swim School because they wanted other families to have what they had — not just lessons, but a real relationship with the water.
Today, Meg runs the program alongside Sean. She's on deck, in the water, in every detail — the kind of presence that only comes from someone who grew up in this world and chose to stay. Molly coached in the early days. Every Emery played a part.
We're not a franchise, we're just a family who wants to share our love of the water with our community.
OUR FAMILY GREW
This is the part we didn't plan for.
It started as four Emerys who loved the water. Then it was a swim school — kids ringing the bell when they pass a level, parents filming from the bleachers, coaches high-fiving in the shallow end.
Every kid who becomes Pool Safe. Every nervous four-year-old who finally puts their face in. Every family that comes back with their second and third child. They're not just students.
They're family now.
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
DC's Only Premium Learn-to-Swim Program
A real pool on the Gallaudet University campus. A real facility. A real program.
A Level System With History
Pool Safe and Stroke School trace back to a certificate a six-year-old held up in San Antonio — refined by decades of competitive experience.
Coaches, Not Staff
People who understand child development, water safety, and how to make a nervous four-year-old fall in love with the pool.
Hundreds of Pool Safe Families
Hundreds of Pool Safe children and families that get to enjoy life in and around the water. They stay. They refer. They come back with their second and third kids.
COME BE PART OF THE FAMILY
Every family that walks through our doors becomes part of something the Emerys started thirty years ago at a Marine base pool.
Your kid's story in the water starts here.