Pool Closure

Yep. You read it right. Yesterday afternoon my life was turned upside down. (To explain, due to the posibility of public viewing, I will use abbreviations). Our pool is closing. Technically it's unofficial until tonight when DCoach actually has the meeting and hears it...but after our meet he basically said it doesn't look good. So. Let me explain why this ruins everything. I will try and be brief, but I'm not sure I'll do a good job because I'm a LITTLE fired up. Ok. So. This all started in:

• July. We heard during the summer that the pool was closing. We freaked out, but calmed down when we found out that we had pool time booked at The Math School Down the Street. This was not ideal, of course, but hey we could swim. Then we found out, 'ohhh heeeyy it's open until December 31st!!' We said, 'fuck yeah!', cancelled our time at The Math School Down the Street and were very happy.
• November. We find out it's closing. Now we are devastated. "A, what about The Math School Down the Street pool time?" For the purposes of this possibly public blog entry, I shall call a man C, and my coach D. C wanted Ds job. C is notorious for going in to city clubs, overtraining athletes, burning them out before they reach full potential, and then moving on to new cities, overtaking other coaches, and doing the same thing. Now, of course RSwimming (the club D coaches) said, 'um C you're an idiot, we know what you do, Ds been coaching forever, get the eff out of here.' C gets pretty pissed. Decides to start his own club, who train at The Math School Down the Street. He says, anything that D does cannot be done with my club in this pool. So. We severed ties with TMSDTS in July, C overbooked his TMSDTS pool time, and now Our School cannot train there. RSwimming has alternate pool times, but Our School does not. So C sits back and laughs, because he has successfully cut Ds salary in half (if Our School Varsity does not continue. And it does not look good).
• Three Years Ago: Our School had the money needed to repair the pool and spent it on football. Our School could have switched the lighting in the pool to more energy-efficient bulbs, which would have saved the money needed to repair the pool.
• Long Term Plans: There are none. However, there is something called 'lease-to-own'. This is where Our School says, 'prior to the leaks / repairs needed, we were willing to put up X amount of dollars to run the pool. Hey private contractors, build us a pool for that X amount of dollars!' Yes, it costs more in the long run. However, it isn't just Varsity and RSwimming that uses that pool. It is a community pool, and is never empty unless it is closed. Plus, with our economy as it is, that really is the only way to build anything. Basically it works like a mortgage.
• Final Points: There have been whisperings of building a satellite campus / building bigger residences to up Our School's numbers. My response: If you can put up money to build a satellite campus, why the eff can't you fix the pool? Also: I turned down 5 other school BECAUSE Our School is small. I don't fucking want a satellite campus, nor does over half of Our School, probably 99.95% of us. Also: Of those 5 schools, I had scholarships to 3, and 2 were getting a new pool facility. Also: How would it feel to be one of THREE schools in all of Ontario to not have a pool? We would be likened to Nippissing, OCAD, and Algoma. Where the fuck is Algoma? Oh yes, that's right, no one knows because no one goes there, therefore it doesn't need a goddamn pool. And, "OMMMGGG NO WWAYY Ontario School of Art and Design doesn't have a pool? I NEVER would have guessed!" Nippissing surprises me. Also: Windsor and Ryerson have pools and no team. Um. Yeah. Let's not get started on that.

Ok that's enough. Basically we find out what it means in terms of our Varsity program tomorrow at 5pm. We have a meeting with the Athletic Director, and we officially hear the news, good or bad, tomorrow morning at practice. I am by no means the best swimmer in the world, nor on the team. But I will not have my swimming career cut short. I don't know what that means for next year. If there is no team, I move schools. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.