The renovation of Gunn’s athletic facilities is one step closer to being done. Nearly a year after the completion of the synthetic turf field, a new, state-of-the-art swimming pool was unveiled early this summer.

According to Principal Noreen Likins, the athletic boosters and aquatics community had raised roughly $300,000 over the years in an effort to construct the new pool. “They managed to draw up the plans and submit them to state architects for approval,” she said.

After bond Measure A passed in June 2008, Gunn had all the funding it needed to construct the pool. “I knew when the bond passed that the first thing we would do was construct a new pool,” Assistant Principal of Facilities Tom Jacoubowsky said.

A ceremonial draining of the pool the day occurred a day after the passage of the bond.

Jacoubowsky also noted that while there were a few delays during construction, they were not significant. The coaches, the athletes, we all understood that the pool would be out of commission for one year.”

The new pool is 35 meters by 25 yards, making it one of the largest high school pools in the area. The old pool was an illegal size for water polo competition, and according to Athletic Director Chris Horpel, people tended to turn a blind eye. “For years, everyone looked the other way because we didn’t have an alternative.”

Water polo player senior Spencer Jones said that regulation-sized pools used for water polo are generally eight feet deep because players are not allowed to touch the bottom of the pool. “A lot of people cheated because it’s hard to tread water when it’s that shallow,” he said. Much of the previous pool was 3.5 to 4 feet deep.

According to Jacoubowsky, the old pool also compromised the safety of athletes. “Diving off the blocks is more dangerous

when the pool is shallow,” he said. There is one shallow lane remaining, which will be used to teach students to swim in physical education class.

Horpel sees the new pool as a way to not only improve Titan aquatic programs, but to strengthen the teams and team unity. “Our elite swimmers swam with their club teams after school during swim season, and just came to the practices before the meets so coaches could get a head count of who would be coming to the meet,” he said. “It created an odd dynamic.” The state of the art facility has also attracted a higher level of athletes and coaches. “It’s created enthusiasm for all of our aquatics programs.”

The pool has also drawn the attention of people outside of the Gunn community. “People from outside who have seen [the pool] have raved about it,” Jacoubowsky said. Since it is a more serious facility with less shallow water, it will no longer be used by the Palo

Alto Recreation Department’s children’s swimming lessons. Over the summer, the pool was turned over for two weeks for use as a host site for Stanford University’s water polo Junior Olympics. Using the pool for events such as Junior Olympics has brought both publicity and funds to Gunn.

Since the pool was partially funded by the community through Measure A, Horpel hopes the community will be able to use it, as well. “The community helped pay for this pool, so we hope to have public hours at some point,” he said. “Since they helped fund it, they should be able to use it.”

While Jacoubowsky believes that the renovation of the 40-year-old pool was overdue, he says the athletes are fortunate to have the facility now. “We have such an outstanding aquatics program, and [the athletes] were being shortchanged for so long by our old pool,” he said. “Now they have a state of the art facility.”