“We’re like a family,” June Hale, 16, says. She’s a first-year rookie guard on the Delaware State Beach Patrol (DSBP) lifeguard team, but before she was a lifeguard – in fact, just last summer – she was a veteran of the Junior Lifeguard Program. A summer institution at the Delaware beaches, it educates and exposes kids to training and mentorship alongside United States Lifesaving Association (USLA) certified lifeguards. For four weeks every July, comprised of eight sessions (rain or shine), a lucky group of kids of all ages enroll to join various Delaware Beach Patrols to have an exclusive lifeguarding experience.
The Junior Lifeguarding Program has been in effect for over 20 years across various coastal Delaware beaches and is specific to each beach (Delaware State Beach Patrol, Rehoboth Beach, Lewes Beach, Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, Middlesex, Dewey Beach, Ocean City, Maryland, and Sea Colony). All host different ages, on various days of the week, with varying costs for youth involvement. However, all have the same goal: to educate and inspire the next generation of lifeguards through hands-on experience in water rescues, medical training, lifeguarding, and preparation for lifeguard competitions.
The Delaware State Beach Patrol (DSBP) is an elite group responsible for ocean rescue and beach safety at Delaware’s award-winning state park beaches, including Cape Henlopen State Park, Deauville Beach, Delaware Seashore State Park – Tower Road, Delaware Seashore State Park – South Inlet, and Fenwick Island State Park. They receive advanced, nationally certified training and get to work in some of the most beautiful and dangerous locations – guarding the Indian River Inlet – in the state. But two mornings a week, an hour before their regular workday begins on the beach, the DSBP lifeguards train kids ages 7 to 16 in their “Juniors” program, which they affectionately call “JL’s” for Junior Lifeguards.
Madelynn (Maddy) McTeer is 21 years old and getting ready to start her senior year at Penn West Clarion University, studying nursing. Yet she spends her summers as the Delaware State Park Junior Lifeguarding Coordinator. She has served as a lifeguard since she was 16 years old. “I started guarding during COVID – I was happy to have a job outside where I could exercise and make new friends.” Maddy became a crew chief in 2023 and then the lieutenant on the force at just 20 years old. However, this year, she chose to step down from her role as lieutenant on the Beach Patrol to focus her time and attention on the juniors program. “There is no other job I’d rather have,” Maddy smiles.
For the past three years, she has been selected to compete in the USLA Nationals: 2023 in Virginia Beach, Virginia; last year in South Padre Island, Texas (where her team, Sussex County Lifesaving Association, won); and this year in Huntington Beach, California (where her team, Sussex County Lifesaving Association, won again).
So, when Maddy’s not kicking butt and helping put Delaware on the map in competitions, she is dedicating her time to keeping the beaches safe (literally saving lives) and positively influencing the next generation of lifeguards in the DSBP JL program. “The kids return each year and they develop their own community here; it’s really nice to see! They are a mini-version of us,” Maddy smiles. She explains that while lifeguarding is a serious job, it can also be fun, and that’s what she tries to infuse into the DSBP juniors program.
Participants do need to be able to swim. “We do not teach swimming like swim lessons; we are teaching ocean swimming and water safety – how to enter and exit safely. The kids don’t have to be the strongest swimmers to do juniors. Some start the program scared of the water – especially this year with us battling the jellyfish – but my goal is, by the end, to get them more comfortable with being around the ocean,” Maddy explains. “The kids do as much as they’re comfortable with. In a way, it’s a personalized experience with how much they can do at JL’s.”
June Hale was part of the JL program when Maddy helped in previous years as one of the six rotating lifeguards who supervise almost 30 JL participants. Now that Maddy is the JL coordinator and June is a paid lifeguard on the patrol, they are no longer teacher to student, but now peer to peer. “It was a full circle moment. I went from instructor to co-worker,” Maddy said. “But June was always meant to be a lifeguard, so it was easy to make that professional transition.”
June explains that in her first year as a rookie guard she is still learning and paired with a veteran lifeguard. “Most of what I do at the beach is with a buddy. It’s for safety and it’s honestly more fun in a pair.” June currently has two siblings in the DSBP JL program at Cape Henlopen: Edward, 14, and Evelyn, 10. “I think they will stay in the program until they’re old enough to be hired. My brother Edward is a pool lifeguard already and counting down the days until he can be on the beach,” she smiles. “It will be great, because by the time he’s on the patrol in two years, I’ll get to be the boss of him,” she says, in true older sibling glory.
The Junior Lifeguard Program is designed to increase a child’s self-confidence around the ocean, improve physical conditioning with running and swimming, and teach about the crucial role of lifesaving on the beach. “Juniors is a great place to find out if lifeguarding is for you,” Maddy says. She explains how the program lets kids really see what the morning of a guard would entail. But even after the program ends at 9:30 at Cape Henlopen beach, many of the kids stay on the beach hanging out around the guards. They’re not old enough to work on the patrol, but if you find a child offering to help you with your beach cart, extend an arm to an elderly person walking off the ramp, or offer to adjust your umbrella to make it more secure in the sand, there is a good chance they’re one of these really special kids, who call themselves DSBP JL’s, and they just understand the importance of helping out on the beach.
Santino Keller, a JL participant who is 12 years old and has completed his third year in the DSBP Junior Lifeguarding Program, explains why he keeps coming back each summer. “I want to become a lifeguard when I’m old enough at 16. It’s a cool thing, because it feels good to know you can help somebody,” he said. “Plus, I love being on the beach. I could spend all day out here. Paddle boarding is my favorite,” he smiles.
Evelyn Burroughs, age 7, completed her first year in the DSBP juniors program and said, “It’s fun to be able to hang out with my two favorite lifeguards, Maddy and Alissa. It’s really so cool to be on the beach and get to jump off the lifeguard stand and save people,” Evelyn smiles. She also expressed how excited she was to wear the red can during mock rescues. “That part makes you really look like you’re a real lifeguard,” Evelyn beams.
Each DSBP JL session starts with a check-in to make sure the juniors applied sunscreen, followed by a warm-up in a circle with stretching and then a jog on the beach. The kids then get a safety briefing on ocean conditions, participate in a skill-based activity for the day, and end with a game related to the day’s training and a cool-down before the session is over.
DSBP juniors participate in learning the following: basic exercise skills, ocean safety, rescue skills, how to set up a lifeguard stand, mock rescues, teamwork exercises, paddle practice on the paddleboards, communication through semaphore signaling, agility drills, basics of beach fitness competitions, surf skills to understand tides, waves, rip currents and undertows, first aid basics, introduction to CPR and wound care, environmental awareness, history, marine life identification, and even safe-beach practice with an emphasis on beach clean-up.
At the end of the Junior Lifeguarding season, in late July and early August, the City of Rehoboth Beach hosts the annual Junior Lifeguard Competition for all juniors throughout the area. Each beach competes as its own team, battling one another in swimming, running, paddleboarding, and sprinting for beach flags. The competition is a fun way to wrap up all the Delaware Beach Patrols’ Junior Lifeguard Programs.
“I hope the kids remember DSBP JL’s as being a place that was useful, but also really fun,” Maddy said in reflection on the close of the 2025 Junior Lifeguarding season. “I hope to leave behind the excitement. The kids all had such great attitudes, and they worked so hard. I’m really proud. I hope they’re all excited to come back to JL’s next year and eventually become a lifeguard. That means the most to me,” Maddy smiles.
