This weekend, the JETS Swim Team will host its annual Summer Classic Swim Meet at Lake Central High School in St. John, Indiana. In honor of the 50th Anniversary of this beloved event—formerly known as the Dr. Pepper Super Swim Meet—we’ll be sharing stories and memories from JETS swimmers, volunteers, coaches, and families.

Today, we shine the spotlight on Mark Broucek. Mark, a JETS alum and former JETS coach and parent, has been involved with the program since the earliest days of the Summer Classic.  

“My family moved to Joliet in 1968 when my dad became the city manager. He also served as the president of the Joliet Community Swim Association. At that time, he knew that if the swim team was going to go forward, they had to raise money. So he wanted to host a new meet. After a couple of years, they realized they needed a sponsor to make it sustainable,” Mark said. 

Mark said he remembers the day he was alongside his father for a fateful ‘driveway meeting’ with the family who ran the Joyce Bottling Company.

“My dad knew that in some capacity the Joyce family was involved with the development of 7-Up, so maybe we could get that as the title sponsor of the meet. It would have been the ‘7Up Invitational.’ Mr. Joyce said ‘We don’t need any publicity for 7-Up, but Dr. Pepper is this regional brand in the south that doesn’t have as good of a foothold in the Midwest. How about if Dr. Pepper ‘hosts’ the meet?’ That’s where the idea to give away the Dr. Pepper six packs and trophies came from,” Mark said.

As the years went by, Mark said the incentive to win Dr. Pepper was always in the minds of each competitor at the annual summertime meet. 

“You only got a six-pack if you won your heat,” he said. “Kids wanted to get those six-packs, even if you had to wait to go home and drink it because the cans had been sitting in the sun all day at the meet.”

Mark would go on to swim competitively for Arizona State University and competed in the 1980 Olympic Trials before returning to serve as a JETS coach from 1987-92.

“When I became a coach, my first job was with the JETS. It was so cool to see the meet still going on,” he said. “It typically ran the week before the state championships for the older kids and every single JET still wanted to swim in the meet. Maybe not always in their best event, because they wanted to be ready for state, but no kid would want to skip Dr. Pepper.”

Mark parlayed his experiences with the JETS into a coaching career spanning more than three decades, and he later served as a parent volunteer while his own kids swam on the team. 

“We always said before the Dr. Pepper meet, you were just a swim parent. After going through one Dr. Pepper meet, you become a JETS parent,” he said. “When you have a kid on a baseball or softball team, you drop them off and then you sit out your lawn chair and you watch the game. When you have a kid on a swim team, you may be asked to keep time, help with the lane ropes, or do something you may have never thought about doing before. And because of that, you become a part of the team.” 

The Y would like to thank Mark for all his contributions to the JETS program and wish the best of luck to all the swimmers and families getting ready for this weekend’s 50th Anniversary Meet!