The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the San Dieguito Union High School District Aquatic Center was held yesterday on campus.
The aquatic center features a 15-lane swimming pool for competitive aquatic sports—water polo, swim and dive. It also includes two diving boards, locker rooms, team rooms, offices, a first-aid station, a concessions stand and bleachers for spectators. Canyon Crest Academy, San Dieguito Academy and La Costa Canyon High School will also share the pool with the school.
“It’s important that we have a pool within the district,” principal Rob Coppo said. “I mean, we’re fortunate to have [the pool] on our campus, which will be great for our teams, but I’m really looking forward to all of the district aquatic students having a place to call home, because this is a shared facility for sure.”
There was always an idea for a pool since the school opened its doors.
“There have been questions in the district about a pool for decades,” Coppo said. “So this has been a long time in the works, and I know a group of families in the north end of the district got together and really started the big push [for the project].”
The on-site pool is “really convenient” for the school’s water sport athletes, according to varsity swimmer Leif PetersBarnes (10).
“It gives us, swimmers and water polo players, a really easy way to practice, instead of having to travel, like, 30 minutes away to the nearest pool,” PetersBarnes said.
Teams hope the convenience will improve game performance in the current and upcoming seasons.
“This pool is very big, so we have a lot more space to practice with, compared to where we were practicing at before,” Ella Gateric (11), varsity girls water polo team captain, said. “So this will allow us to be really conditioned in the pools, [have] a long course, compared to wall cages. So it’s really changing our gameplay, and we can run different types of plays.”
Coaches at the school agree that the pool size contributes to overall practice strategy and gameplay.
“The pool we used to be in was a lot smaller, and the big water will give us a lot of opportunities to be more creative with our practices and get more done,” Brandon Carmen, head coach of varsity boys water polo, said. “Being able to practice in a competition-sized pool will get us ready better for CIF.”
With a larger pool, the team can further meet the goals they set at the beginning of the season. All aquatic sports can improve their performance with more open space.
“We have high expectations for our girls and the team, and they want to meet those expectations and exceed those expectations, and they’re excited to hit the ground running and really just start off with success in this pool,” said Taylor Arnett, head coach for girls junior varsity and varsity water polo.
The pool’s construction involved many contributions.
“To put the scale of this effort into perspective, the project includes over 15,500 square feet of masonry block, 70,000 pounds of structural steel and 700 cubic yards of concrete,” construction manager Andrew Hanson said. “The aquatic center will support student athletes, coaches and their goals for many years to come.”
