Central District

[scwat]

Issues

I agree with you Preeder. Didn't mean to suggest that swimming at the high school level is immune to PEDs, just that I haven't seen evidence in Central Ohio. However, the powers that be should always remain vigilant to keep the sport clean and stay off that path. About your other points, yes, it seems like pool space is still very limited in the state. That will not be an easy fix. But if there is a lack of good coaching in swimming, this is a bit perplexing to me. We have all of these young people graduating high school and college with years of club experience and lots of energy to share it. Shouldn't we have an abundance of good coaches spread out by now all over the state?

 

[WATERDAD]

Thank you for helping me try to understand where you are coming from preeder. On your other point if the coach is not a good coach shouldn't they be asked to leave their position? Part of what I see is that coaches have the best intentions but may not not have the training needed to deal with all the prsonalities of the athletes and more so the parents. The other issue for coaches is everyone wants to have the best coach but are not willing to pay them for their time. If you look at what most coaches are payed and compare that to the number of hours usually worked, they don't make much. So in turn have to have other jobs to support familes, pay insurance and so on. This then leads to a whole host of other problems for the coach I'm sure. They are working multiple jobs, not getting enough rest to recover, the parent issues and not spending enough time with their own family, the list goes on. The sword is double edged if you pay a coach so they can make a living then you have to pay more in your fees, given the times we live in I just don't see many willing to do that either. So where do we draw middle ground? I'm sure all the coaches think they are doing the right thing for the kids and some of us parents are happy with them. But some of us parents are not. Those parents then either cause many problems for the teams, or team hop as many continue to do in all the communities across the country. I think that can actully do more damage to the swim community as a whole. We have all seen it happen over and over, a group of parents not happy with coach. The coach gets relieved of their duties with that club, gets angry, starts a new club in town or moves to another club. The parents that liked the coach basically gut the original team and that team fights for survival. Happens acrossed the country every season. Is there an answer? Not sure but history keeps repeating itself. New pools have always been a thing nobody really wants to address $$$$$$$ again. The folks that have them or build them want to make money.

 

[swimfan]

There is the key point in this discussion. High schools are not being built with pools, pools are not being build and supported by schools systems, and the pools that are being build are university pools, Dennison, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon where private campaigns raise the funds.

New pools have always been a thing nobody really wants to address $$$$$$$ again. The folks that have them or build them want to make money.

Ad to Denison, Wesleyan, & Kenyon the OSU pool. I don't know how available Kenyon is to high school. OSU allows the Ned Reeb & Central District Meet - but I think at a pretty steep price. Wesleyan opens this year...hopefully it will be available & affordable. Denison will open in 2012. These are all first rate facilities. It would be neat if they host major meets. You would think that the swim coaches at each institution would look for opportunities to expose high school swimmers to their facility. Thus far, it seems that OSU - which is a taxpayer subsidized institution - has more interest in acheiving a big payday than working to expand competitive swimming and high school swimming. That is unfortunate.

 

[thedutchman]

Thus far, it seems that OSU - which is a taxpayer subsidized institution - has more interest in acheiving a big payday than working to expand competitive swimming and high school swimming.

That may or may not be true. I don't know the details of the charges to use the pool. But in terms of profitability of meets the Central District Meet seems to have prospered since moving to OSU. Last year according to the Central District Board, Swimming & Diving was one of the sports that made money from its tournament. According to the financial report swimming had a profit of $11,583.71.

The other sports and profits are Boys Basket ($84,861.29), Cross Country ($1,356.63), Boys Soccer($26,279.92),Girls Soccer ($12,278.58), and Volleyball ($12.134.99. All Football revenue goes to OHSAA.