Due to recent construction on the Niles North pool, North swimmers will be using West’s facilities until their pool is ready to be used again.
According to Triblocal, the upgrade will cost $14.9 million. It comes with 52,00 square feet of a new diving well, an Olympic-size pool, and upgrades on the pool that they already use.
North swimmers have been holding their practices at Niles West and JCC pools. It is planned that the finished product will be ready in the fall of 2013, but head swim coach Jason Macejak predicts it will not be ready until the spring of 2014.
“The new North pool will consist of two pools; one will be an eight-lane 25-yard pool, and there will also be a separate pool for diving,” said Macejak.
The fact that two schools are sharing a pool does create a tight work space. In order to accommodate all the swimmers, some cuts had to be made to the West junior varsity team.
“I don’t mind having North share our pool. They are our sister school, and if this ever happened to us I would want them to help us in the same way. It stinks that we had to cut some JV swimmers because it feels like we are catering to North slightly, but it’s not like they are vandalizing our pool,” said junior Mel Leftakes.
North swimmers said they are excited to finally be getting a new pool, after waiting many years.
For more information on the construction, visit Legat Architects.
Rebecca Yun • Oct 20, 2012 at 12:21 AM
I think it’s great that us swimmers are sharing with Niles North. As Mel said, they’re our sister and it feels nice to help them out when they need a pool. It gets really cramped when all twenty-something of the varsity girls are crammed into three lanes, but since we’re so hospitable maybe North can return the favor later on? Not that I’ll still be here when the pool is finished, but still.