A Tale of Two Pools
Summer in Tucson means temperatures in the 100s, blinding sunlight, waves of hot wind and cars reaching the internal temperature of hell. While all of that might sound like fun, especially to native Arizonans, it is nice to have a place to cool off.
Though the UA Student Recreation Center pool, which is open to students from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, may be viewed as just another imamate object, what would it say if it could talk?
If you need a place to relax and chill, I’m always here. Soon many of you will be gone, but I’ll be full of local kids learning how to swim.
The other day I overheard Britney Bond, an aerospace engineering freshman who is here about two or three days a week, tell her friends she would "die" if I wasn’t here. I know it was just a joke, but being the Rec pool is an important job. The community needs me.
"I love this pool," said Amanda Pudil, a pre-business freshman. She visits me usually four days a week. Pudil said she likes to "just to relax and catch some sun."
But Martin Tuck is my man. He is assistant director of Aquatics and Activities classes, and he makes sure my chemicals and filtration system are kept up. He tests all my chemicals at least once an hour and makes sure my deck stays clean.
Sometimes he likes to talk about the messed up things people have done to me.
"We used to have trouble due to the location of the back wall and the height of the wall; people will jump over or throw things over," Tuck said.
Tuck keeps a broken bowling ball that someone threw over as an example. It really tore up my deck -- that hurt.
There’s me, then there’s the Aquatic Center pool. It’s always so serious. He spends all of his time with the swim team helping them practice. But their hard work has paid off -- the swim team is doing great.
The team only gets Sundays off -- some days they even train twice a day. Without the Aquatic Center pool, how could the team members have worked their way toward competing for spots on the Olympic teams? Some students have even already qualified for their respective country’s teams.
"We just won the national championship, both men and women," said Frank Busch, UA head swimming and diving coach. "That’s the first time that’s ever been done in school history. The women have now won four straight Pac-10 titles, so the program is doing very well. After winning, I guess we are now considered the best program in the country."
Some people might call the Aquatic Center pool an old man, but in October the new diving pool intended for the athletes, next door to the current one, will be ready, so the old pool will get a chance to rest, as well as a needed face lift.
The main pool "eventually is going to be probably gutted and just expanded," Busch said. "The old diving well and the pool will be joined as one and that will be our main pool still."
The new diving pool will be big enough to take over for the Aquatic Center pool and the old diving well for a while. The old diving well just wasn’t big enough to handle the growth of the program.
Busch described the difference between the old and new diving wells.
"The difference between this would be the difference between being in a Volkswagen Beetle and then riding in a stretch limo."
The swim program will be able to grow and recruit more athletes with the improved facilities, Busch said. It will also be able to host bigger events.
Whether students need to work out, get a tan, play water polo or just cool off, the Rec pool is always there. The next time you and friends need something to do, consider stopping by.