Livermore needs an Aquatic Center!

The Livermore community has produced high level swimmers in spite of the lack of facilities available.  There is not one 50 meter competition pool in Livermore, the closest 50 meter facility is in Pleasanton or Tracy.  Swimming is strong team  healthy sport that promotes individual events and  team events.  The swimmers in Livermore have a variety of summer teams to be a part of but when it comes to year round USA swim teams, the choices and facilities are extremely limited.  The  Robert Livermore Community Center has limited access and is not a 50 meter pool. The Livermore Valley Tennis Club, home to the Livermore Aquacowboys and the Fireballs continue to be a strong swim team under the direction of Coach Alex Silver, Coach Lisa White, Coach Leslie Dabney and Coach Teresa Davis.  The Livermore Aquacowboys have had to spread out their team to other facilities because of the growing team and limited facilities.  The LAC Sr. group has been practicing at the Sunset Cabana Club.  Although the team is grateful to have a place to swim, this pool is limited in size and has stairs on the sides that limit the swimmers ability to complete turns as they train.  In the summer the Sr. group travels to the Olympic Pool at Cal High in San Ramon for long course training for a limited time in the early mornings in the summer.  Last summer, LAC rented lanes at the May Nissan pool.  18 swimmers trained at this older Livermore facility and 9 swimmers contracted ear infections.  The lane rental for the LAC team to use the Robert Livermore Community Center is extremely cost prohibitive.  The lanes that the RLCC charges is more than 8 times what the Pleasanton Seahawks rent from the city of Pleasanton at their Aquatic Center.

The need in this community is real.  The need of an Aquatic Center is huge in this community.  There are hundreds of swimmers in Livermore.  The number of swimmers at the high school level have increased over the years and the pools at the high schools are old and inadequate for large meets.  Swimmers from this community travel to several other cities for larger meets all year round.  Earlier this month, the city of Morgan Hill once again hosted the winter Junior Olympics at their Aquatic Center.  The Junior Olympics brings over a thousand athletes.  The City of Morgan Hill has a large soccer facility next to the aquatic center and there are hotels lining the opposite side of the street.  All the hotels are full bring much needed revenue to the city of Morgan Hill.  The aquatic center has a large competition pool, a smaller warm up pool as well at a family fun area with water slide and sprayers for summer fun.  This facility hosts the Far Westerns as well as many other swim meets through the year.  Far Westerns will bring over 1500 athletes from Hawaii, Mexico, Canada and all the Western States to compete at this high level meet.  The hotels, and restaurants in the area are full to capacity with big events.  The parking lot has solar panels on top of the parking area to assist with the heating and energy needed for the facility.  This kind of facility would be a wonderful asset to our community of Livermore.  There are many athletes that would benefit from such a facility. 

Swimmers have notoriously been extremely dedicated athletes whom have a high GPA’s, strong community values and wonderfully healthy members of the community.  Swimmers train 6 days a week, some do double sessions and swim as early as 4:30 am.  Currently, we have swimmers in Livermore that travel to Pleasanton to train.  Livermore residents deserve to have a training facility in Livermore.  The Livermore Aquacowboys have swimmers that have competed in the Junior Nationals, and have been selected to high level meets.  Livermore swimmers have been accepted to UCLA, UCSB, UCSD to name a few and we are proud of our swimmers.  The swimmers have been involved in community service and have a reward system for producing good grades.  Strong team pride and encouragement to be a strong member of the team and meet your personal goals as well as be strong players on a team are stressed.  These core values translate well to the community for these kids are leaders, learners, committed, responsible members of society that have been taught to work hard and give back. 

The city of Livermore has approximately 81,000 residents yet no 50 meter pool in town.  Dublin had 44,000 with one 50 meter pool shared with a high school and one more in the plans.  San Ramon has 49,000 residents and two 50 meter pools that are shared with high schools.   Tracy has 79,00 with at least one 50 meter pool with joint use with a high school plus another 50 meter pool under discussion for the future.  Pleasanton has 67,00 residents, one 50 meter pool at the aquatic center and the high schools each have competition pools but not 50 meter pools.  The pool at Livermore high school is not legal for competition and LHS holds their meets at the Robert Livermore Community Center as well as water polo.  Granada High has an old pool that is able to host limited sized home swim meets.  The year round USA swimmers travel to Orinda, Morgan Hill, Stockton, as well as many other cities to compete.  Doesn’t it make sense to have an Aquatic Center here in Livermore to keep our swimmers here, train here, give back to the community here and become community leaders here?