Pool closure displaces swim teams

The closure of the Lynnwood Recreation Center pool means big changes and uncertainty for dozens of local high school swimmers.

After more than three decades of use, the Lynnwood pool was retired on Saturday. The city will demolish the Recreation Center and replace it with a larger $25.5 million facility, scheduled to open in April 2011.

What does that mean for swimmers from the Edmonds School District’s four high schools who practice and hold home meets at the Lynnwood pool?

“Obviously it’s going to have a great impact on us,” said Julie Stroncek, Edmonds-Woodway High School’s athletic director. The district’s other high schools are Lynnwood, Meadowdale and Mountlake Terrace.

The pool closure didn’t affect the schools’ girls swim teams this year because they competed in the fall. But boys swimming is a winter sport, so the district’s teams scheduled home meets for the early part of the season. This week — Dec. 23 and 24 — the district’s boys teams will host home meets at the 33-year-old Lynnwood pool for the last time.

“We’re making do with boys for the winter. Next (school) year, we’re hurting,” Stroncek said.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, girls and boys swimmers from all four schools will practice at the Mountlake Terrace pool during their respective seasons. But that pool is too shallow and too small for competition, said Stroncek, which means the schools must find an alternative pool for home meets or schedule all away meets. So far, the district has not found a temporary home for competition, she said.

Waiting for the new Lynnwood pool to open is “a huge stress on the coaches and the athletes and their parents,” Stroncek said.

“In the long run we’re going to have a much nicer facility,” she added, “but in the short-term we’re going to make it work.”

All four district schools have girls swim teams. The boys teams are co-op programs: Mountlake Terrace and E-W share a coach, and Meadowdale and Lynnwood share a coach.

ALL STARS: Meadowdale’s Julia Fjortoft and Carly Holmes were Class 3A first-team, all-state selections, which were compiled by the Tri-City Herald. Also earning Class 2A first-team honors were Archbishop Murphy’s Sam Pettinger, Alli Beard and goalkeeper Alexa Hughes. Wildcats coach Dick Henderson also was named coach of the year.