By John McCann
RALEIGH, N.C. — When in so-called Rome, you’re supposed to do like the Romans.
So when all Judah Hall was seeing as a budding swimmer were white kids, it made sense to him to act like them.
“When I was on the pool deck, I was basically the only Black boy on the pool deck besides maybe one other kid. That was it. And that definitely made me feel a little out of place, a little uncomfortable, because that made me decide, ‘Yeah, maybe if I start acting white, they’ll accept me,’” Hall said. “I wasn’t being myself. And, you know, that definitely affected me. I felt left out.”
It’s why he dove in years later to help his big sister, Zion, coach The Firebirds swim team she was shaping to curate warmer, more welcoming waters for youth, particularly those identifying as Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) like 10-year-old Taylor McFarlane.
The Firebirds squad is an affiliate of USA Swimming, the national governing body for swimming in the United States. Zion Hall, 21, said as best as she can tell, she is the youngest Black female head coach affiliated with USA Swimming in North Carolina. USA Swimming members self report demographic information, according to a USA Swimming spokesperson.
If not for The Firebirds, Taylor’s probably not on a swim team, said Shanta McFarlane, Taylor’s mama.
“It was very hard to find a swim team to fit our needs where she’s represented, where she can feel like she fits in,” Shanta McFarlane said.
“There’s always somebody to encourage you,” Taylor said.
It’s the Black pride for Amaya Durandis: “Being in the first woman-run, African-American swim team, it feels really nice. It really does.”
Amaya is 9. She gets it, said Shelley Willingham, the chief revenue officer for The Diversity Movement, a Workplace Options Company.
“When a 9-year-old can see herself in her coach and already understand why that matters, she’s not learning representation theory — she’s learning she doesn’t have to edit herself to matter,” Willingham said. “That’s what shifts. Not talent. Not work ethic. Just the removal of an invisible weight most people don’t even realize they’re carrying until someone finally takes it off their shoulders.”
Changing lanes
In 2023, Zion Hall was on a Raleigh swim team whose coach decided to change lanes.
“That kind of left the swim team without a coach, and so the team got shut down. But the kids didn’t want to separate because, you know, there’s no other team that was like us,” Zion Hall said. “They were all first-generation swimmers. We needed a new place to go, and I was the only one with a coaching license at the time.”
Likeminded individuals came together that year and established a nonprofit entity called Champion’s Coaching Inc.
“We weren’t a swim team at the time. Champion’s Coaching originally was used as a way to be able to obtain lane space for our kids to be able to continue swimming until we found a new idea,” said Zion Hall; the Firebirds call her Coach Zion. “Eventually, we went from just paying for lane space and providing resources for these kids to doing things like lessons and water-safety talks and stuff like that. And eventually, back in 2024 September, we became the first Black-woman branded USA Swimming team in the Triangle. We became official then.”
The Firebirds are official all right. By providing inclusive space for young swimmers, Judah Hall was able to develop and earn a spot on the swim team at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory.
“It’s helped me realize my potential,” he said. “As I got older, and I started to find more and more Black swimmers like me, I was like, ‘Oh, there’s more of us? Like, I’m not the only one?’”
Finding freedom
On Jan. 10, Judah Hall competed in his first collegiate swim meet. Lenoir-Rhyne hosted Wheeling University, a team out of West Virginia. He came in first place in the 400-yard medley relay (3:35.24), first in the 200-yard butterfly (2:03.77), first in the 100-yard butterfly (53.80) and first in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:28.67). He’d tell you those results wouldn’t have been possible had he kept faking it before joining The Firebirds.
Willingham said the inner winner was in him the whole time.
“That Firebirds swimmer didn’t get more talented when he switched teams. He got free,” Willingham said. “Free from code-switching, from performing a version of himself that made everyone else comfortable, from the exhausting work of fitting in. All that energy he was spending on assimilation went into his stroke instead.”
“My previous team, they didn’t really understand what talent I really had. But the Firebirds really understood — well, my sister understood because, you know, she has been my sister ever since I was born,” Judah Hall said. “When nobody else was there, she was there. She’s the one who coached me through things.”
Zion Hall can coach her behind off, Shanta McFarlane said. Coach Hall is very direct when providing instruction, focusing on stroke technique, proper breathing, overcoming fear.
There was a January evening this year when it was unseasonably warm outside Pullen Aquatic Center. Nice and toasty inside, too, just right for swimming. But Amore Thompson, 12, had cold feet up there on one of the starting blocks. Coach Hall was trying to get her to dive into the water.
Amore wasn’t having it. At all.
Coach kept coaching.
Splash!
Amore’s head emerged from the water. A grin drowned her frown. She did it.
Zion Hall can coach her behind off.
Evans Durandis, Amaya’s daddy, is certain his daughter would not be on a swim team if The Firebirds and all of its inclusiveness weren’t around.
“She doesn’t really have to hold back or act any type of way, code-switching or whatever. She’s definitely herself,” Durandis said.
“Belonging gives you permission to be excellent,” Willingham said. “The difference isn’t subtle — it shows up in performance, in outcomes, in who gets to reach their full potential and who spends half their energy just trying to exist in the space.”
Diving deeper
Nothing shallow about any of that. This swimming thing, though, is even deeper, the coach insisted.
“This isn’t just a play thing. This is a lifesaving thing,” Zion Hall said.
According to a May 2024 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the BIPOC community has the highest drowning rate among Americans. And not only did 36.8 percent of Black adults report not knowing how to swim compared to 15 percent of all adults, 63 percent of Black adults also revealed they’d never taken a swim lesson, 9 percentage points higher than all American adults, according to the report. It’s about access to pools and the ability to afford swim lessons, the CDC suggested.
“Providing a BIPOC-centered space for swimming and water safety directly responds to a history in which Black people were excluded from recreational spaces and denied access to lifesaving swim education,” said Karida Giddings, the access to health care program coordinator for North Carolina Black Alliance. “Recreational spaces support health by promoting physical activity, stress reduction and social connection, but those benefits were not equitably available to Black communities for generations. Creating affirming spaces like this helps repair that harm by improving safety, rebuilding trust and allowing Black families to reclaim recreation as a source of wellness, joy and long-term health.”
“You can get jobs because of this,” Coach Hall said. “I don’t know if you heard about this, but there’s a lifeguard shortage, and people are hiring lifeguards left and right because people don’t know how to swim. These kids are growing up with an ability to be able to swim. Some of them are going to go into lifeguarding. Some of them want to be swim coaches. I became a WSI — that’s a water-safety instructor; I wouldn’t have been able to do that had I not known how to swim.”
Judah Hall became a collegiate athlete because he learned how to swim. He’s eyeing the 2028 Olympics.
“A future that was always in him but couldn’t come out until he found a place built to let him breathe,” Willingham said.
“It’s camaraderie with fellow swimmers,” Evans Durandis said.
“There’s soft skills,” Zion Hall said. “Things like teamwork. Things like communication, math — you have to know a lot of math.”
Math plus swimming — it actually adds up, the coach said.
“Say we have eight laps that they need to swim,” Zion Hall explained. “Each lap, you need to complete it within a minute. The clock that we have, it just shows the minute and the seconds. So say the minute says 40. The kids need to know, ‘OK, if I leave on the 40-zero-zero, I need to be back at the next wall and ready to go by the 41. And these kids are learning this math at 6, 7, 8 years old. So lots of math.”
Champion’s Coaching board member Dionne Brown said The Fireboards want to offer scholarships to offset costs for team membership and participation in swim meets. Funds are needed for equipment, too, she said. A dreamy scenario would have The Firebirds owning a facility instead of renting lanes at pools, board member Deidra Hall said. Sponsorship and donation opportunities for The Firebirds are at championscoaching.org.
Coach Hall said she swam competitively for 10 years.
“I was always on deck — whether I qualified for things or not — I was always on deck watching people. I always knew that I was going to be in the swim world somehow,” Zion Hall said.
Judah Hall said the swim world is a better place because of what his sister is developing for young swimmers who look like him.
“They’re actually able to be themselves,” he said. “As Black people, we have our own way of acting, right? And we’re able to be ourselves.”
