Blake Williams is a coach and parent of two competitive swimmers. He can tell you all about the lack of available pool space in Fort Wayne that has made it challenging to find enough practice time and puts local swimmers at a disadvantage compared with those in other Indiana cities.
appA new pool is so desperately needed here in so many ways,app he said.
Williams is also a Carroll Middle School teacher and sees a problem that goes deeper than just cultivating fast swimmers. Itapps become difficult for young kids to even learn to swim or for seniors to get exercise in the water, and the amount of congestion at pools sometimes seems dangerous.
A solution might have been born when a local nonprofit organization, the Fort Wayne Swim and Wellness Alliance, bought the pool used in June for the U.S. Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. That pool now needs a home and would find one within a proposed facility that could be built in partnership with Northwest Allen County Schools.
app(Speaking) as a teacher, swimming is something the kids go to the pool at different grade levels throughout their experience to learn how to swim,app Williams said. appWe want them to be safe in and around the water, whether itapps at the lake over the weekend or whether itapps in their own swimming pool. We just want kids to be safe. So, having access for kids to learn and get their swim lessons at young ages is so important.app
Getting time in the water with instructors in Fort Wayne isnappt as easy as one might think. If there isnappt a waiting list at the natatoriums, the only available times could be short sessions in the early morning or late evening.
. With the allure of the Olympic Trials pool and the presumption swimmers will go particularly fast in it, Swim Alliance officials believe it would become a venue for national competitions.
But itapps about much more than that.
appWe want to make sure the message is out that this is not just about competitive swimming or diving,app said John Gibson, president of the Fort Wayne Swim and Wellness Alliance. appItapps about community health and wellness, swim lessons, water-safety training, lifeguards, teaching little kids how to swim, teaching adults how to swim, water exercise for senior citizens.app
A space problem
Brian Hench, a local swim coach and father of two athletes, has long been shocked at the lack of pool space in Fort Wayne.
appI grew up in Defiance, Ohio, and we had better access to pools there than we do here,app he said, appand I think there were only 18,000 residents when I lived in Defiance.app
Fort Wayne has one 50-meter pool, the Helen P. Brown Natatorium at South Side High School, serving a population of approximately 269,000. The 50-meter length is important because itapps the standard for many competitions, particularly those beyond high school. Indianapolis has 16 such pools, one for every 60,000 people, according to the Swim Alliance.
There are three competition venues in Fort Wayne app the Carroll Natatorium, which can be configured to 25 yards, the Summit Middle School Natatorium, which can go to a slightly larger 25 meters, and the Brown Natatorium app and demand is increasing with a new NACS middle school opening next year, Leo adding a swim team, Indiana Tech making plans for a team, and Turnstone needing pool time for those with disabilities and potentially for Paralympians.
appIappm going to coach middle school for my daughter this year, and weappre already trying to figure out what happens next year when thereapps another middle school,app said Hench, who coaches at the Carroll Natatorium. appWhat are we going to do? Are we going to run 10 p.m. practices? Or are we going to limit them to just 45-minute practices that go to 9:30? You can barely get a warm-up in during 45 minutes, much less get a practice in.app
Ideally, middle school practices would be about 90 minutes long, Hench said, and this season theyappve been 60 minutes with time lost because other teams are getting in and out of the water. Some of the practice time is ineffective, he said, because appeveryone is packed in like sardines.app
Difficult decisions must be made on who gets the limited lane space.
appIf you wanted to host swim lessons at Carroll on a Thursday evening at 5 oappclock, youappd have to basically tell 200 kids they now canappt have swim practice because youappre going to do swim lessons and maybe run 20 kids through every 45 minutes,app Hench said. appLittle kids need to learn how to swim, but you also canappt tell the kids who have been doing it they canappt do it anymore.app
There are some other options during the winter, such as YMCAs, but they lack the space for competitions. In the summer, when outdoor pools are open, some teams have become so overcrowded because of the demand that coaches have limited time to work one-on-one with swimmers.
Valuable acquisition
The Swim Alliance was created in 2021, after various ideas were floated in the swim community to remedy the problem of limited pool space. Alliance members considered putting temporary structures over outdoor pools so they could be used in the winter or putting a pool inside a warehouse, but then came the realization the Olympic Trials were coming to Indianapolis.
Gibson and Ben Sutton got in touch with Myrtha Pools, which was constructing the pool, about the idea of buying it for a future Fort Wayne facility. This isnappt unheard of; Myrtha pools have been relocated from Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, to Minneapolis and West Fargo, North Dakota.
Myrtha quoted a price for the Lucas Oil Stadium pool app one that Gibson declined to disclose app . On July 1, after the trials, the pool arrived in Fort Wayne and was stored at Custom Engineering and Fabrication, where it remains in pieces.
Having the 50-meter pool will save money in the long run, Gibson said, as opposed to having one built from scratch. And the way it was built app with deep lanes and a particular circulation system app suggests swim times will be faster than most pools and a selling point when bidding to host meets. At Lucas Oil Stadium, several world and American records were set.
appIappve seen a lot of different pools around the country,app Williams said. appAnd I can tell you the money (a new facility) will bring into our community will be immense. Having that title, having that (Olympic Trials) pool, will bring teams to Fort Wayne, Indiana. And Iappm talking about teams not only in the state but around the Midwest. Theyappll want to come here to swim in the pool that has the best filtration. Theyappll come here because we have it.app
Quest for a building
Getting a pool has taken the Swim Alliance only part of the way. It still needs a building to house it.
After commissioning a fundraising feasibility study by Toledo-based Aly Sterling, the Swim Alliance believes it could raise $15 million to $20 million for a new facility, but it would need a partner for the rest. It hopes that will be NACS, which has been receptive to the idea but is far from agreeing to it.
appWhen our pool was originally built (in 2000), we were just nearly half of what our size is right now,app NACS superintendent Wayne Barker said. appWe were at 4,400 students. Now weappre nearly 8,400 students. When we built an eight lane, 25-yard pool, that was appropriate. But now, nearly doubling in size and with what is projected to come and opening the third middle school, the demands on our pool right now are basically that itapps used all waking hours of the day.app
The Swim Alliance has proposed funding up to $18 million through private donations for a new facility if NACS picks up another $35 million. If NACS were to build a facility on its own, the Swim Alliance said, it would cost $38 million and have fewer amenities, including the Olympic Trials pool, with negative cash flow for two years minimum.
The proposed facility, at a site not yet determined, would be 300% larger than the Carroll Natatorium, have two pools totaling 30 lanes, and alleviate problems including inadequate changing facilities and lack of room for water therapy and fitness classes.
appBeing a swimmer is not easy,app Williams said, frustrated after a recent practice. appBeing able to have a little lane space, to be able to have differentiated instruction and be able to work on it, it would be so valuable, but we just donappt have it. Iappm watching them cool down (in the water) tonight and they donappt even have the space to properly cool down without running somebody over.app
Just as the SportONE/Parkview Fieldhouse and Icehouse regularly host national tournaments in basketball and hockey, a new swim facility could draw multi-day competitions that help fill restaurants, hotels and shopping centers. A planned soccer stadium on Bass Road that could open in 2026 for Fort Wayne FC has similar aspirations.
The Swim Alliance, which hopes its facility could open as early as 2027, cited Greensboro, North Carolina, as the potential model for local economic benefits; a pool that opened there in 2011 contributed $182 million in added economic activity to the community in its first 10 years.
appWe, and I think (NACS), understand the potential of what this can not only do for their students and their district, but what it can do for the community,app Gibson said. appI think thatapps something everyone agrees on and itapps just a matter of trying to hammer out some of the details.app
The Swim Alliance made a presentation to the NACS board in October and a working group was formed to determine its interest and if the project can be done within current tax rates. An update is expected in early 2025, and Barker is excited about the possibilities.
appFor (the Swim Alliance) to have the foresight and to have worked on this for years in advance and be able to acquire this pool, I think it speaks volumes to their foresight and initiative and wherewithal just to get that done. I think thatapps amazing story in itself,app Barker said.
appAnd then for them to have interest in partnering with NACS, when NACS has this obvious need for a new natatorium, I feel mainly blessed by the opportunity that itapps something that we could do in partnership, as opposed to trying to do something like this on our own.app
