When Swim Lessons Become a Legacy
Some swim instructors teach lessons. Others build legacies.
Brad Worrell spent 11 years helping shape the programming at our DMV swim school, WeAquatics, before returning home to St. Lucia to transform his family’s swim school into a regional center of excellence. His journey is more than a career move—it’s a full-circle story of taking what he learned and pouring it back into the community that raised him.
His story is more than simply teaching kids and adults to swim; it’s about what happens when everything you learn gets poured back into where you came from.
The Foundation: 25+ Years in the Making
Long before WeAquatics opened its doors in the DC metro area, Brad’s mother Dr. Diane Worrell was building something remarkable in the Caribbean.
In 1999, David and Brad’s parents opened Rodney Heights Aquatic Center in St. Lucia, not because the government built it, but because they realized if they wanted a regulation-size pool for their three sons to train in, they’d have to build it themselves.
“We had been working with committees, trying to get St. Lucia to have a facility for our kids and all kids to train in,” Dr. Worrell explained. Even though they were working quickly, it wasn’t coming together fast enough. That’s when they realized they would have to make it happen themselves.
So they did what seemed impossible: they brought in a Myrtha pool system (the same technology used at the World Championships and the Olympics) and installed it themselves. The pool has been operating for more than 25 years, making it one of the longest-running Myrtha installations worldwide.
For context, when major swim competitions happen—like the upcoming LA Olympics—organizers bring in portable Myrtha pools and assemble them on basketball courts or in convention centers. That’s the caliber of facility The Worrells built in St. Lucia a quarter-century ago.
The WeAquatics Swim School Years
After graduating from Howard University, Brad moved to DC and joined his brother David at WeAquatics. Over 12 years, he didn’t just teach swim lessons; he helped shape how the swim school delivers programming.
Brad’s path at WeAquatics mirrors what many of the best instructors do: he started with traditional Learn-to-Swim classes, then became a certified ISR (Infant Swimming Resource™) instructor, and eventually helped develop the technical framework that connects every program from infants to competitive swimmers.
“Working alongside David really opened my eyes and allowed me to grow in a way where I can see what it takes to build a brand and to stand by it,” Brad said. “One of the things David says is you have to hold it in both hands, because it can slip.”
That attention to detail, to programming, to instructor development, to creating pathways from one skill level to the next, became Brad’s specialty. And it’s exactly what St. Lucia needs.
Coming Home
By 2024, something had shifted at Rodney Heights Aquatic Center. The facility that had once dominated regional competition was falling behind.
“When I was here 11 years ago, St. Lucia had the top team in the OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States),” Brad explained. “We would defend the championship year to year. Over the past four or five years, the level of swimming has dropped. Other islands like Antigua have come up, and now they’re leading. We’ve fallen to fourth place.”
For an island with the best pool in the Eastern Caribbean, that ranking told Brad everything he needed to know. The infrastructure was there. The coaching philosophy wasn’t.
“With us having the facility that we have, which is still the best facility in the OECS, we should have kept that title,” he said. “That told me the coaching and philosophy going into developing these swimmers is not where it needs to be.”
What 12 Years at WeAquatics Swim School Taught Him
Brad returned to St. Lucia in July 2025 with a completely different perspective than when he left. Those years teaching swim lessons and helping to build programs in the DMV gave him something St. Lucia desperately needed: a blueprint.
Here’s what he brought back:
Technical breakdown from ISR experience
Working with infants taught Brad to see swimming technique in microscopic detail. “When you’re looking at infants and young kids, you’re looking at movements as small as a tilt of the chin or how the rollback happens,” he explained. “Being able to break down technique to that degree means when kids get into stroke classes, they pick up feedback much faster.”
WeAquatics’ Programming Philosophy
Brad implemented the same zero-to-hero pathway that works in the DMV: ISR for survival skills, learn-to-swim for foundation building, stroke development for technique, and competitive training for athletes. Every program feeds into the next.
Instructor development systems
“One of the struggles my mom has had over the years is maintaining qualified instructors who stay with the programs,” Brad said. “I’m now putting things in place to develop instructors so they become professionals at what they do, and we’re capable of paying them as professionals.”
Modern operational systems
Everything from class registration to family communication to record-keeping needed updating. Brad is modernizing how the swim school operates behind the scenes.
The Five-Year Vision: Center of Excellence
“Within the next five years, I see a center of excellence,” he said. “We’ll have strength and conditioning work, nutritional planning through our kitchen, high-level training—potentially offering kids who would go to Florida boarding schools for swimming the ability to train here in St. Lucia instead.”
The facility is partnering with the only gym in St. Lucia that offers HYROX training (a fitness competition combining running and functional exercises). They’re renovating the 25-year-old pool with Myrtha’s latest technology. They’re building out studio and gym spaces.
And they’re doing it with the same family-run philosophy that built WeAquatics.
The WeAquatics Connection
Brad still wears his WeAquatics rash guard when he teaches swim lessons in St. Lucia. Some families there recognize the name from sponsorships and the brand’s reputation in the DMV.
“There’s definitely a sense we can build on that here,” Brad said. “At some point—maybe sooner than later—we go from Rodney Heights Aquatic Center to Rodney Heights Aquatic Center by WeAquatics, or some version of that.”
For David, watching his brother apply what they built together to their family’s original facility feels like the natural evolution of everything they’ve worked toward.
“The work here has always been about delivering the best lesson possible and delivering relevant programming,” David said. “If there was ever a good time when we as a family were equipped to take Rodney Heights to another level with all we’ve learned over the last 10 or 15 years, it would be now.”
What This Means for Swimming Families Here
You might be wondering how Brad’s story relates to your child’s swim lessons in DC, Maryland, or Virginia.
The same philosophy Brad is implementing in St. Lucia is exactly what makes WeAquatics programs work here.
- Survival focus that starts with infants
- Careful progression from survival skills to competitive swimming
- Instructor development that ensures whoever is teaching your child actually knows what they’re doing
Brad spent 12 years helping to perfect that approach in the DMV. Now he’s proving it works anywhere—even rebuilding a struggling program on a Caribbean island.
“There are days when David and I talk and bounce ideas off each other,” Brad said. “We’re both very busy, but when we find the time, it’s never enough. We’re continuing to collaborate and build excellence in swimming.”
That collaboration means WeAquatics families benefit from innovations happening on both sides. When Brad figures out a better way to teach breath control to 3-year-olds or a more effective progression for competitive skills, that knowledge comes back to instructors here.
The Legacy Continues
Dr. Diane has officiated swim meets and coached for 30 years. She became the first FINA (now World Aquatics) referee in St. Lucia and has officiated at Caribbean and Central American championships. She built a world-class facility when no one else would.
David founded WeAquatics and spent over a decade building it into one of the most respected swim schools in the DMV.
Now Brad is taking everything both of them taught him and writing the next chapter—not just for his family, but for an entire island’s swimming community.
“Coming from the family that we are, we stay close, and we’re tight,” Brad said. “We support each other through the hard times and easy times. I’ve never felt alone in making a decision that affects all of us. That’s probably the biggest benefit—and all I could have ever asked for.”
Some swim instructors teach lessons. The great ones build something that outlasts them.
Ready to experience the same philosophy that is transforming St. Lucia’s swimming landscape? Sign up for swim lessons with WeAquatics today and see what family-run, technically-focused programming can do for your swimmer.
