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Pool Or
No Pool

By Ted McKean

Photo By Erixson

University's Antiquated Swimming Pool In Memorial Gymnasium

Current Debate Centers On Whether To Make New Pool Six Or Eight Lanes

AS REPORTED IN Monday's Cavalier Daily, the proposed
expansion plans for University athletic facilities include an eight
lane pool of Olympic proportions in the new complex adjacent to
University Hall. That article also stated that, if the budget
becomes too stretched, the size of the pool will necessarily have
to be reduced to six lanes rather than eight.

It now appears, as the result of the architect's most recent
report, that funds, or rather the lack of funds, will necessitate
cutting the size of the pool to six lanes. That is one option open
to the Athletic Department; the other is to appeal for more funds
from government sources or to start an alumni drive, as the
track folks have, to raise the additional funds.

Although the alumni of the track team have only raised a little
over $17,000 their efforts are not for nought. This drive
stimulated the Athletic Department to add some $60,000 of their
own to bolster the fund. Is it not possible for the swimming
alumni therefore to rally their forces to come to the aid of this
project? We certainly hope the initiative will be taken.

ALTHOUGH THE DIFFERENCE between an eight lane
pool and a six lane pool may seem trifling to a casual observer,
such is not the case at all. We find it imperative for Mr. Sebo, and
the forces that be, to oppose the construction of a six lane pool,
and to hold out for more funds until the time that Virginia can
build the originally designated Olympic model.

We make this appeal for several reasons. First, it is important,
in as far as recruiting good swimmers goes, to offer the best
possible facility that we can. As opposed to any other breed of
athlete, the swimmer bases his greatest emphasis on the facility
he must use for his next four years. While football fields don't
vary a great deal in quality from school to school, pools do. Take
our antiquated pond in the basement of Memorial Gym for a
prime example. Many many high schools have a superior facility
to that monstrosity. The speed a swimmer can turn in a pool like
ours is significantly slower than what he could do in a pool
equipped to alleviate backwash and waves. And in our pool;
especially, it is even difficult to see the ends in order to execute a
racing turn.

HAVING A GOOD POOL however is no longer the question,
for undoubtedly we will have a good pool. But we cannot settle
for a good six lane pool. We should only settle for the best
possible pool, the eight lane Olympic-type, for this pool will be a
fixture for many years to come. A six lane pool, like the archaic
Memorial Gym puddle, will become obsolete, sooner than we
think. It will soon become a stumbling block which will keep us
operating at the same handicap we currently endure. Do you
wonder why we cannot even compete with four of the teams in
the ACC? The answer is simple: the pool.

With an outstanding pool, eight lanes, Virginia could build her
program to one of national stature. The swimming powers on top
now are schools like Yale and Stanford, top academic
institutions. Unlike so many other sports, in swimming a school
can swim with the best, and still maintain academic superiority.
Right down our alley, eh? Take note that Yale does not offer
swimming scholarships; to get good swimmers, she relies on her
excellent name, and her outstanding facilities, which consist of
two practice pools, and the "exhibition pool" reserved strictly for
competition. Just think, maybe we wouldn't even have to offer
scholarships, and use the Athletic Department's hard to come by
dough.

SWIMMERS GENERALLY ARE NOT an especially underprivileged
lot who need financial assistance anyway. They
develop primarily through first country club competition, then
AAU training or high school and prep school competition.

To most swimmers therefore, scholarship offers are relatively
unimportant. The valued factors to the swimmer are the school's
pool, and the prestige the name of the school carries.

THE CONCLUSIONS WE can draw are fairly obvious. For
Virginia to achieve the name in swimming would not be difficult.
The academic, name prestige is already there. We must, however,
offer the best possible facility. The Athletic Department, upon
whose shoulders this decision rests, must not compromise to
accommodate the present. The only answer, keeping the future well
in mind, is for the Department to hold out for the originally
planned eight lane pool.