Rocky High School has so many opportunities, clubs, and activities- One of which includes a swimming team. The swim team is very exciting, however, it is disheartening that Rocky’s swimming pool is closed down due to some unfortunate circumstances. This affects the swimming team and their practice times, as well as their game days. Gracleynn Veys, a junior, and Elizabeth Shorten, a senior, talk about their experiences and problems of no pool.
Having no pool causes the girls on the team to have many different problems, on top of other problems and challenges like balancing school, practice, and life. Veys mentions that, “Not having a pool is hard, especially when it comes to going from school to practice. When there was a pool, swimmers could leave their equipment bags and other necessities on the pool deck or in the swim locker room, but now, we have to find a way to lug all of our practice stuff to Augustana. It is especially hard for the underclassmen, considering they don’t have cars, and have to find other ways to get their equipment from school to Augie.” Having no place to put any of their practice equipment and especially the underclassmen having no cars to drive in is an especially big challenge for the girls. With the problem of not having a car, Veys mentions that she had to give the underclassmen rides to and from practice, as do the other upperclassmen.
Having to practice in a college pool is troubling because the college has its own events going on. Veys mentions, “It can be a challenge going to Augustana to practice every day, especially when the practice times vary. Likewise, there’s always different events going on at Augie, which can make it extremely difficult to find parking in order to access the pool.”
Many times, the girls have a hard time balancing life, practice, and school. Veys explains that having no time to relax, and having practice very late at night is challenging, however, she believes it would be better if they had their own pool, since everything would be easier to balance out. “Most practices go from 7:15 to 9:15 pm, which has definitely affected my school night and time for homework. When I get home from school, I’m extremely tired, and want to take a nap before practice. I won’t get any homework done, and I will most likely stay up even later than planned, due to the fact I have to get my homework done,” says Veys. Getting time at the pool in Augustana is hard, as they have to go off the college students times they have to practice very late. Veys mentions, “Due to certain circumstances with getting pool time at Augie, our practice times vary as the season goes on. There have been some nights where I haven’t been able to get home until almost ten o’clock.”
Veys also mentions that the girls don’t have much time to be able to go to many games, events, etc. “Having practices so late can prevent us from attending certain high school events. Our most commonly missed events are high school football games. It makes us all disappointed that we won’t be able to go to games and show our Rocky spirit because we have to practice late at a pool that doesn’t even belong to us,” Veys says. This is very hard because Veys also mentions that they practice every day, and that their practice times vary most of the time.
Veys mentions it is very disheartening to not have their own pool and if they did, “having a pool of our own would be so much easier for everyone. Not having a pool of our own affects practice times, causes us to not have any home meets, and prevents us from getting the full experience of a high school athlete,” Veys says.
Not having a pool gets concerning as many students have been wondering what’s been going on. As well as, being promised something that isn’t currently being worked on and having to wait for a long time. Having the school board talk about the pool for years brings false hope to the girls. Veys mentions, “The school board has been going back and forth when it comes to the pool for months, many times, giving us as swimmers false hope of getting the new pool we’ve been waiting on for years. It all comes down to the budget of the new pool.”
Shorten agrees with Veys, as Shorten talks about her experience and challenges with swimming practices being so far away.
Shorten mentions that it is nice practicing in the Augustana pool, however, she’d prefer Rocky to have a pool as it’d, “save a ton of gas if we just had our own pool.” She mentions that swimming does take up most of her time however, it is totally worth her time, stating, “Swimming does take up a lot of my time, but it’s 100% worth it,” Shorten says.
Shorten unfortunately also doesn’t know what is going on with Rocky’s pool, however, she does wish that they’d be able to have a pool, “Yes! I wish Rocky had a pool. It’s honestly so heartbreaking going to other schools for meets because it’s just another reminder of what we don’t have,” Shorten mentions.
For this reason, it would be convenient for Rocky to have a pool as the girls on the swim team would really appreciate it. Both Veys and Shorten’s experiences and troubles having no pool show that it would be very favorable for the girls swim team. However, the girls still do their best and try to keep their hopes up.
