The new pool at Elk Grove High School is eight lanes wide and 25 yards long, but it’s still not big enough to hide in if you’re a timid freshman in a Lycra swimsuit.
That was what some kids thought at the start of the year, when the opening of the $7 million pool made aquatics a mandatory part of the school’s physical education curriculum. But with two weeks of splashing behind them, most students seem to be getting along swimmingly.
“A lot of kids were concerned about how they looked in bathing suits,” said sophomore Amanda Sloat, 15. “I was nervous at first. But now I go swimming twice a week and I’m not afraid.”
The pool, which opened in August, has been in the works since 2002, when parents lobbied the District 214 Board of Education to construct one. A district spokeswoman said the board decided to build it at Elk Grove because it was the southernmost of the district’s six schools and the two that had pools–Buffalo Grove and Wheeling–were in the north.
The new pool also hosts the swimming team from Rolling Meadows High School, 5 miles away, and the scoreboard carries the nicknames of both schools. However, “Elk Grove Grenadiers” is the only name emblazoned on the pool deck.
“I think [Rolling Meadows] isn’t too happy about that,” said Bruce Bazsali, head of Elk Grove’s PE department.
Having a pool means that swimming has become a required part of PE for Elk Grove’s roughly 2,000 students.
“We thought we might get all sorts of reasons not to swim, all sorts of excuses,” said Dave Toler, the school’s aquatic director. “It’s been a lot easier than I expected.”
The school has devised its own learn-to-swim program with the goal of giving students at least enough proficiency to stay afloat if they fall off a boat or pier. However, the kids also have a chance to goof off with races or leaps from the diving boards, and for some, that’s reason enough to don a swimsuit.
“I thought it would be pretty fun to swim,” said freshman Nick Mortensen, 15, clad in baggy trunks, “and it has been awesome.”
