Cannonballs back for another summer of swimming fun

Published 12:41 pm Tuesday, May 20, 2025

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Noah Corley swims during practice with the Cannonballs summer team at the Verbeck YMCA. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Cannonballs coach Spencer Carroll, right, gives directions to a group of swimmers during practice. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Adeline Henry jumps into the pool at the Verbeck YMCA during practice with the Cannonballs summer swim team. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Annalise Henry swims during practice with the Cannonballs summer team at the Verbeck YMCA. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Benji Corley swims a lap during practice with the Cannonballs summer swim team. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Cannonballs swim coach Luke Larsen gives instruction to Adeline Henry and Charles Mitchell during practice at the Verbeck YMCA. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

Titus Williams swims during practice with the Cannonballs summer team at the Verbeck YMCA. (Ernest Bowker/The Vicksburg Post)

When he started the Vicksburg YMCA Cannonballs swim team five years ago, Wilson Carroll admits part of the reason was to create a feeder program for the high school team he also coaches at St. Aloysius.

While the Cannonballs have fulfilled that vision, they’ve also become something much bigger and better.

When the team held its first practice of the 2025 season Monday at the Wilkinson Ver Beck YMCA pool on Oak Ridge Road, there were nearly two dozen young swimmers in the water. They came from all of Vicksburg’s schools, as well as a couple of home school students.

Carroll estimates that about half of the program’s swimmers have gone on to compete for either the Vicksburg Swim Association’s club team or one of the city’s high school teams at St. Al, Vicksburg High and Warren Central. Seeing the Cannonballs become a community-wide melting pot has been great to see, he said.

“It’s been a great program. And it’s been so fun to see so many of these kids that start with Cannonballs move on to swim with other teams — either the VSA or the Vicksburg and Warren Central high school teams, or St. Al,” said Carroll, who is the Cannonballs’ general manager. “The idea was to create another developmental program that would feed into all the other programs around the city, and I think it’s been a great success in that regard.”

The Cannonballs, who operate under the umbrella of the Vicksburg YMCA, are a youth program for children ages 6-16. They compete in the Jackson Swim Association, which has about 18 teams based mostly in the Jackson Metro area. There is a month-long season with weekly meets, culminating with a league championship meet in Flowood on June 23.

Practices are held in the mornings at the Wilkinson Ver Beck YMCA, and meets are on Monday afternoon. One meet will be at the Verbeck pool, and others at pools in the Jackson Metro.

The registration fee for the season is $120 for YMCA members and $160 for non-members. Registration is available by calling the Vicksburg YMCA at 601-638-1071, or Wilson Carroll at 601-953-6579.

Many of those at Monday’s first practice were novices who could swim a lap or two but have never raced or gone through a formal practice. Although the purpose and focus is to introduce them to the competitive side of swimming, Carroll said the key to the Cannonballs’ success has been doing that while keeping things fun and loose.

“We have fun. We have cookouts. That’s the key. You don’t want kids to burn out. Swimming, if you do it full-time, can be almost overwhelming. That’s one of the reasons we like the idea of a summer program. It fits in as part of a well-rounded child and athlete,” Carroll said. “If they want to go year-round, we have lots of options for them to do that here in Vicksburg. But if they just want to do it part-time, we make it fun.”

Carroll has a supervisory role as the team’s self-described “manager” who handles logistics like coordinating meets and registration. The day-to-day coaching is led by a staff of excellent young adult swimmers from Warren County — Jon Daniel Busby, Luke Larsen, Spencer Carroll, Blair Farrell and Aubrey Rankin.

Busby, the head coach, was a state championship swimmer at St. Aloysius. He is only 19 but has already been coaching various teams for five years.

“We’ve got three state champions out there, out of our five coaches,” Carroll said. “I would set this coaching staff up against any team in the state of Mississippi, at any level. They love these kids, they love what they do, and they’re all experienced coaches now.”

Busby said he enjoys seeing the mix of those seeking out a fun summer activity and others tapping into their competitive side.

“For most kids it’s fun to swim for a few weeks in the summer. But some kids at a higher level want to do well. They’ll see someone they know from school and want to beat them,” Busby said. “It’s good to even have people in your lane to push you, and you want to get on their level.”

And while Carroll is proud of the Cannonballs’ success rate in creating new high school swimmers, he said even those who don’t intend to take up the sport full-time are welcome to join. He encouraged them to put in a few weeks in the summer as part of an overall training program.

“All these kids do multiple sports. They’re either playing baseball, or soccer, or softball. We encourage that,” Carroll said. “To me, it’s like cross training. If you’re good at swimming you’re going to be good at anything that requires cardiovascular skills. Some of them swim year-round, some of them come back just to swim with the Cannonballs. We’re perfectly OK with that. In five or six weeks you can make a lot of progress if you show up regularly and pay attention.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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