With the Water Wings mascot, a friendly dolphin, high-finning children and adults, Ekene and Rosaline Ogbechie were all smiles as they opened their new swim school location in Arlington on Oct. 17.
“It just showed we chose the right place for this school,” said Rosaline Ogbechie, beaming at the response.
While the celebrations were fun, the couple have a serious mission at the core of their latest venture: drowning prevention.
This important core focus of their new Arlington business earned the couples a 52 Faces of Community nomination, the Fort Worth Report’s weekly series highlighting unsung local heroes.
Though this is the couple’s first swim school in the U.S., their passion for water safety goes back several years.
The Ogbechies, both natives of Nigeria, have built successful careers, Ekene as a subsea engineer in the oil and gas industry and Rosaline as an accountant.
Now British citizens, both were in the middle of their careers in 2017 and working in Scotland when they began researching ways to make a difference back home. Nigeria is a rich country economically, but has high rates of extreme poverty.
“We look to do something for our community wherever we are,” said Rosaline. “We have been very fortunate in our careers and our lives and we were looking for a way to do something for our home country.”
They discovered that drowning was one of the leading causes of deaths in Nigeria. Frequent serious floods contribute to the problem, Rosaline said.
“We learned this as we were teaching our children to swim,” she said. “That just kind of made sense, so we decided to start a swim school (in Nigeria) because there were not many pools like we have here.”
After raising funds and spending much of their own savings, the couple opened the Albyn Swim Academy in September 2022 as Nigeria’s first indoor, heated swim academy.
“It has been great because a lot of people there do not know how to swim, how to survive in the water,” she said. Rosaline herself was a perfect example, as she did not know how to swim and had to learn the skill.
“Water Wings has a mission to help children and families build confidence, develop essential water safety skills and prevent drowning. The Ogbechies were a perfect fit.” — Michael Browning, nominator
They opened their doors with 24 students. Today they have more than 800 – ranging from toddlers to seniors – learning water safety and survival skills and how to swim.
After relocating to North Texas, the couple saw the same need here: families looking for quality, year-round swim instruction and the need for water safety education.
Rosaline Obbechie of Water Wings Swim School in Arlington on Oct. 17, 2026. (Bob Francis | Fort Worth Report)
“Opening our swim school in Nigeria and seeing the impact it had on helping save lives reinforced just how important access to quality swim education can be,” Rosaline said. “That experience inspired my husband and me to continue our mission here in the Mansfield-Arlington south area.”
Tarrant County ranks consistently among the top counties in Texas for pediatric/childhood drownings, which are a leading cause of accidental death for kids under the age of five, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
The Ogbechies thought they would start their own school from the ground up, but soon found Water Wings, based virtually in their backyard in Bedford.
“Water Wings has a mission to help children and families build confidence, develop essential water safety skills and prevent drowning,” said Michael Browning, the CEO and founder of Unleashed Brands. “The Ogbechies were a perfect fit.”
The Ogbechies decided to purchase a franchise which allowed them to open faster. They were also impressed with the swim school’s curriculum.
“They have a great program and use United States Swim School Association standards in aquatic education,” Rosaline said. “Through Water Wings, we hope to equip every swimmer with the confidence and skills they need to be safe in and around the water while expanding access to communities that need it most.”
Water Wings is not just designed for children. The school helps introduce infants to the water for the first time, but also helps children who already know how to swim master new skills and supports experienced swimmers. Water Wings instructors are certified in water safety, CPR and first aid.
The Ogbechies don’t plan for the new school to be their last. The location at 6501 S. Cooper St. is the first step toward their goal of opening 10 swim schools in 10 years, including expansion back in their home country of Nigeria.
Water Wings Swim School, a year-round business dedicated to helping children learn water safety skills, is a franchise brand of Unleashed Brands. Based in Bedford, Unleashed Brands is the parent company of a variety of franchises aimed at youth enrichment, including Urban Air, The Little Gym, Sylvan Learning, Snapology, Class 101 and Premier Martial Arts.
For Rosaline, it is more than just seeing children learn to swim that gives her satisfaction.
“When I sit down and I see people walk into the facility, it does something to me,” she said. “I see parents come in holding their kids, coming here to learn to swim and it just makes me really emotional that they are coming to learn, teach their kids. Maybe their kids are screaming at first, but eventually, they are enjoying it, learning to love swimming. That still gets me — every time someone walks in that door, I know we could impact their life in a positive way.”
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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