Studio Director, Partner
Counsilman-Hunsaker
St. Louis
Once swimming and aquatics get in your veins, it’s hard to get them out. Aquatics developer and speaker George Deines is a real-life example of that fact.
When he was 13, he entered aquatics as a swimmer. He hadn’t expected to adopt this sport. After racing a buddy in the local pool, a swim coach approached him about joining his team.
“I didn’t think much of it because I was 5-feet-nothing and I weighed about 165 pounds,” says Deines, a studio director and partner in St. Louis-based Counsilman-Hunsaker. “I did not have the body of a swimmer.”
In high school, he was accepted into the varsity swim team as a sophomore. The coach there had his swimmers certified as lifeguards, enabling Deines to work that position during summers. He held posts with a local YMCA and university pool for a few years.
During this time he also coached swimming, working for the summer league.
Deines graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Texas, but quickly decided against that as a profession.
“I went to the Career Center at North Texas and said, ‘I have a journalism degree but I want to go into parks and recreation,’” he recalls.
So the university helped tailor his resume for a job opening that his future wife had found. He began his official career as aquatics coordinator for the City of Plano (Texas), programming swim lessons and water-fitness classes, and coaching the Plano Aquaducks swim team.
After seven years, he became aquatics manager for the City of Garland (Texas). Here, he had to become much more of a generalist, as the only full-timer managing three outdoor pools and a wave pool.
“In Plano, I was one of five to six full-timers just at one pool,” he explains. “In Garland I was the only full-timer for four pools. So the weight of every aspect of aquatics fell on me, from hiring and training to helping market the facilities and put on special events.”
Needing to learn a lot in quick order, Deines was drawn to industry organizations such as the World Waterpark Association and the Association of Aquatic Professionals.
“That just helped to meet other industry professionals who were in the same position I was,” he says.
He joined Counsilman-Hunsaker as a project manager in 2014, brought on board by fellow Plano aquatics veteran Kevin Post. He has since become the studio director in charge of performing the feasibility studies that help determine the best aquatics combinations for clients.
His biggest lesson when tailoring an aquatics facility? Allow the community to say what it wants, and listen to the officials who will fund the development. And don't try to predict what they will say. “Listening well to a variety of people is the key,” he says.
The communication skills he developed as a journalism major have come to play in a significant way. “I do a lot of City Council presentations and school district board presentations and community meetings," he says. “Having a background in journalism, especially broadcast journalism, is very helpful when I’m doing public presentations.”
This also undoubtedly helped in 2020, when Deines helped advocate the industry during the COVID crisis. His articles in various industry publications helped aquatics departments develop arguments and strategies when lobbying to reopen and fund local pools.
Deines has also held a high profile as an instructor and speaker at aquatics and waterpark conferences and trade shows. He tries to incorporate fun into his presentations, such as “What Seinfeld Taught Me About Aquatics,” where he uses clips of the show and ties them to the industry.
Deines served as chair of the WWA safety committee from 2015 to 2018. “Keeping our guests safe in and around the water is the first thing on our list to do,” he says.
Like that 13 year old, current-day George Deines views aquatics as both a vocation and avocation.
“I have a passion for swimming,” he says. “I’m swimming every morning by 6:00, and I’ve completed five Alcatraz swims in the past several years. [My job] is a great fit for me because I love the aquatics industry and I love being able to help communities find the right aquatic facility.”
