It's not easy to be a competitive swimmer in Hernando County, where high school athletes share facilities with the public and coaches are ...
By VINCENT THOMAS
Published September 17, 2006
There is a breaking point with frustration, a moment when will gives way to resignation and the hands get thrown up in the air and the source of the frustration gets a dismissive wave.
"I'm done with this."
That's what Debbi Raab said a few years ago. She was done with swimming in Hernando County. She was a coach and public pool ringleader for close to 20 years, but she had enough and resigned as Hernando's swim coach.
"We could build soccer fields and baseball diamonds and tennis courts, but we couldn't build a pool for these kids," Raab said.
Since the 1980s, Raab and other swim supporters made several entreaties to the Hernando County government, hoping it all would result in a public pool for the briskly growing population. But it was a fruitless march. So Raab gave up. All the information she had compiled over the years - funding plans, design drawings - she gave to the county. Not as a gift, more like an information dump.
"I said, 'Here. I don't care anymore,' " she recalled. "I couldn't fight it anymore. I just felt like I couldn't be of service to our swimmers."
Lack of a public pool rendered Raab to a state of perceived helplessness. She said coaching had become a chore and the inconvenience of each high school's limited pool use some with the YMCA, while some flirted with private facilities was too much.
Now it's a few years later and that same sense of frustration is growing among the competitive swimming community. On Wednesday, new Nature Coast coach Travis Priddy summed up his initial take on things.
"This is a crazy mess," said Priddy, a swim novice, abruptly stepping in for Phil Bennett. "You probably have a lot of coaches who, after a while, just get fed up."
The recent crisis affecting the county's public swim teams deals with renovations at the Spring Hill YMCA that are taking longer than expected, thanks to some inclement weather. It has forced three of the squads (Hernando, Nature Coast and Central) to scramble to schedule meets, since originally scheduled meets at the YMCA were canceled. (Springstead isn't impacted as much because it scheduled meets in Citrus and Pasco counties.)
The renovation delays have exacerbated frustrations. For all the YMCA's accommodation, local teams have to deal with odd practice schedules, cramped practice space and equipment shortages, not to mention the lack of a facility to house year-round competitive swim teams and dedicated to hosting school swim meets.
Citrus County has two public pools, Whispering Pines in Inverness and Bicentennial in Crystal River. Pasco County has three. Hernando has zero.
That perplexing disparity is highlighted during times like these, when the county's alternative - the YMCA - is unexpectedly unable to accommodate meets and the local teams' seasons are placed in jeopardy.
"I'm at my breaking point," Central coach Julie Withington said. "Something needs to be done. We absolutely need another pool."
"It's absurd," Doug Sheffield said.
His daughter, Central senior Rae-Lynn, is the county's premier swimmer and she has spent most of her life traveling to other counties to participate on their competitive teams. There are few year-round swimmers in the county, with Doug Sheffield estimating about 10.
Lack of a public pool, he says, has dampened enthusiasm for swimming locally, and others agree. It also results in local teams rarely able to compete with neighboring squads. Primarily because local teams tend to field a good deal of novices, but also because local teams begin competition around 40 points in the hole, since Hernando squads don't have diving teams. Why? Because, there is no diving well at the YMCA, so kids aren't able to practice.
Pat Fagan, commissioner of parks and recreation, understands the frustration, and the oddity of a county of Hernando's size without even one public pool is not lost on him. But he says folks shouldn't hold their breath waiting for a public pool. It's a priority of the county board of directors.
He spoke of county-wide budget cuts and a host of competing priorities, such as road work and government buildings.
"It's pretty much at a stand still," Fagan said. He recently presented a plan for a public pool, but funding remains the deterrent.
"Swimming pools are expensive," he said. "For the county to get a public pool, the money has to be there. And, right now, it's not."
Meanwhile, Sue Ball, YMCA director, said they are moving forward with deliberations regarding a "concept" that would build a separate and public aquatic center next to the YMCA on Mariner Blvd. It would have a separate entrance and be built in partnership with the county - meaning the county would have to help with the costs - and maintained and operated by the YMCA.
These plans are still in their infant stages, but Ball did say YMCA has submitted a proposal for a lead gift to help with costs. The extent of county aid, or whether or not the county is interested in the partnership, is up in the air.
"We want another pool for the county. And around the state it seems like partnerships are the way to go," said Ball, mentioning a new facility in Sarasota that is run in this fashion.
"I don't want to see swimming die in the county," Doug Sheffield said. "All we need is one pool - just one.
