Team representatives from six local community summer swim teams, Courts of Chandon, Four Seasons, Hunters Creek, Kingston Chase, Meadows and Reflection held a series of meetings over the winter of 1982-1983 in order to form the Herndon Swim League as a developmental swim league. These original team representatives were Jean Kuhns (Four Seasons), Mary Sides (Hunters Creek), Brenda Adams (Kingston Chase), Bill Liedtke (Meadows), Bonnie Bunting (Reflection) and Anna (Courts of Chandon).

Our rules and procedures are a little more relaxed than some established swim leagues. The purpose of the league was to promote sportsmanship through friendly competition between amateur swimmers, designed to teach good swimming techniques for each swimming stroke to all team members and to provide participants with aquatic skills which they can use throughout their lives. The league also was developmental in nature and aimed to provide an organized summer swimming schedule for community-based youth swim teams in western Fairfax County.

Four of the six charter members are still with us, they are Four Seasons, Hunters Creek, Kingston Chase, and Reflection. Other teams which have at one time been a part of our league are: Ashburn Farm, Broadlands, Chantilly Highlands, Courts of Chandon, Franklin Farm, Manorgate, Pleasant Valley, Sequoia Farms, Sterling Park, Woodstone, and Meadows. Most of these teams have moved on to other leagues as they have become more established. We now have nine teams. Over the years we have added Bradley Farm, Faircrest, Foxfield, Herndon Community Center and Kingstream.

After several years of thinking about a championship format meet involving teams from the entire league, this meet was started in 1993. This event involved only about half of the swimmers in the league, and because of the developmental nature of our league it was then decided in 1996 to expand this meet to two season-ending meets. We now have both a Championship Meet and an All-Star Meet which make up the All-League Meets. Beginning in 2007 due to computer advances these two meets have been held in a combined format where the Championship and the All-Star Meets are swum simultaneously. There are separate sets of awards for each of these two meets.

Each year at the All-League Meets a volunteer from the league is recognized with the Commissioners Award. Winners of this award are recognized for outstanding contributions to their team and the league and for outstanding leadership and years of dedicated service. Over the years, the following people have received a plaque signifying this honor. They are: Bill Liedtke (1993), Bonnie Bunting (1994), Jean Kuhns (1995), Deke Smith (1996), John Buck (1997), Joni Ogden (1998), Brenda Lindholm (1999), Dan Hutchison (2000), Paul Mannino (2001), Debbie Kight (2002), Cindy Keefer (2003), Kathy Kammer (2004), Tom Philpott (2005), Jim Thompson (2006), Jennifer Skinnell (2007), Kerstin Severin (2008), Hilary Warnock (2009), Kathy McLaughlin (2010), Cathleen Paul (2011), Diana Fields (2012), Sara Liedtke Levy (2013), Kerrie Wilson (2014), Jeremy Smith (2015), Sharon Barr (2016), Leanne Caldwell (2017), Becca Liedtke (2018), Chris Kauffman (2019), No award due to Corona virus (2020), Kingston Chase Fighters Swim Team (2021),  Michael Weidemann (2022), Shannon McClain (2023) and Brooke Taheri (2024).

Our swim league started a scholarship program in 1995 for graduating senior swimmers. The idea was actually to keep the older kids in the league, as many would drop out after about age 14 or 15. It actually worked, every year now we now have a good crop of high school age swimmers who serve as mentors for many of the younger swimmers. This program has been expanded twice, and we now offer up to six $500 college scholarships each year. This is more scholarships than any other local swim league offers. Depending on the results of the Silent Auction each year, more scholarships may be awarded.

On Saturday July 22, 2023 the Herndon Swim League convened to commemorate its 40th Anniversary and the 30th Annual All-League Meets. Among the attendees were four of the six founding members of the league, who were either present or represented and duly acknowledged at the meet. They included Bonnie Bunting from Reflection Riptides, Mary Sides from Hunters Creek Stingrays, Bill Liedtke from Meadows Sharks and Becca Kuhns and Rose Keelor, daughters of the late Jean Kuhns from Four Seasons Tidal Waves who were there to honor their mother’s memory following her recent passing.