About Us

In the late 1960’s, Rice Professor Bob Bland was heavily involved in the local swim clubs. He and his wife Cathy started Bland’s Swim Shop in 1972 with the concept that customer service was the first priority. They opened doors on their retail storefront in 1978.

In 1989, Bob and Cathy retired and turned the reigns over to Terry and Susan Matherne and the name was changed to Texas Swim Shop. Susan has a long history of swimming from Dad’s Club Swim Team, to competing for the LSU Tigers, and more recently swimming for the Rice Aquatics Master’s Program. They poured their hearts into making Texas Swim Shop a household name in the Houston aquatics market.

In 2026, when retirement finally called for Terry and Susan, the Groover Family purchased the business with the promise to continue providing the finest customer service and swim products in Houston’s only locally owned swim shop.

Kat and Charlie Groover are proud parents to 5 kids, who all swim competitively. Kat will be managing the operations for Texas Swim Shop. She met Susan and Terry while shopping for suits at her first swim meet in 1992. She has a history of being at the pool, as a swimmer/coach for the Pineloch Piranhas (Clear Creek Swim League), and swimming competitively for STAR (now AQUASTAR), Clear Brook High School (swim + water polo), and the University of Houston (GO COOGS!). The Groover children proudly swim in the West Houston Aquatic League (WHALe) where Kat and Charlie both hold volunteer board positions on their team and league, respectively. Kat and Charlie are also certified officials for USA Swimming and can often be seen on the pool deck working club swim meets for Gulf Swimming.

We are looking forward to serving your individual or team aquatic needs!