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Pool opens opportunity for swim team |
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Thursday, 01 November 2007 |
 The continued usage of the Student Recreation Center's pool has increased interest in the club swim team.
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by ERIK RHYNE
Sports Reporter
For most athletic teams, improved facilities equal greater interest in the program.
It has been no different for the Appalachian State University club swim team, which has seen interest increase since the opening of the new pool in the Student Recreation Center.
“I know I have been receiving tons of e-mails from parents and students alike, from other schools and
high schools, inquiring if we will be getting a varsity team,” said Kimberly F. Lomonaco, the president
of the club swim team. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily spurned much more interest. I think more people
might be aware that we have a team.”
However, the increase in awareness did not come immediately when the SRC opened.
Pool delays kept the team from practicing in the water for months.
“Of all things at Appalachian I’ve been happy about, that’s the one thing, since I’ve been here, that’s
been a shortfall of the university,” Club Vice President Brian R. Post said. “It’s hard to stay fit as a
team. A lot of people, that’s what they do, they swim. That’s their main form of exercise. I just felt a
little let down by the university; they weren’t really on top of it.”
An article in the Aug. 24, 2006, issue of The Appalachian stated the pool was closed due to improperly
laid tiles that allowed water to seep under them.
With the pool closed, Lomonaco said it became harder to recruit new members. The team did try to
work something out with the Watauga Swim Complex, but the prices were too high for the club to
afford.
With no pool to practice in, Lomonaco said the team had “dry-land” practices. These practices were
held once a week and included conditioning drills, push-ups and other things to keep the team active
and meeting together.
“We wanted people to at least be doing something and have some camaraderie,” Post said. “We did
monthly socials so that if new people came in they could get to know the older people. It was just a
way to keep in touch with the team.”
Now with the new pool open for it’s first full year, the team has many more opportunities that were
unavailable to them in Broome-Kirk Gymnasium.
“It’s been pretty amazing,” Post said. “It’s still a long way to go but it’s a good start. We have decent
starting blocks compared to the other pool.”
The pool in Broome-Kirk made it next to impossible to host a swim meet, Post said.
“It was a small pool with only six lanes,” Post said. “Also the blocks were concrete slabs. Every time
you tried to dive off of them, it would break your ankle pretty much.”
With the pool in the SRC, Lomonaco said more people know the team exists now than when they
practiced at Broome-Kirk.
“Formerly when we were in Broome-Kirk, swimming in that pool, not many people went there for fun
purposes,” she said. “It wasn’t a great facility. Now that we have a brand new facility, and it’s right
there in the open.”
This season, the team hopes to host a home meet for the first time in club history.
Post said the officers had talked about hosting a dual meet against Western Carolina University, in a
battle of the “Old Mountain Water Jug,” but Western declined.
“We’re still holding out for a meet at the end of next semester,” he said.
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