SWIMMERS, TAKE YOUR MARKS

Swimmers, Take Your Marks Story by Kari Williams

The sport of swimming attracts people from all walks of life. When the Shawnee Mission School District Aquatic Center opened in January, it offered district students and members of the Shawnee community, as well as visitors to the area, the opportunity to indulge in the appealing sports of swimming and diving.

Jeff Stewart, executive director of the Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department, says the facility, which features two pools, will add to the “entire community,” even stretching to the Kansas City metro area.

“It gives us a great opportunity to teach children how to swim, and we know that was one of the interests the school district had,” Stewart says.

The aquatic center is connected to a $223 million bond issue that school district voters approved in 2015. Its completion was a partnership between the City of Lenexa, SMSD, and JCPRD.

A 50-meter pool is designated for competitive swimming while a 25-yard pool is intended for “training and noncompetitive swimming,” according to the JCPRD website.

The smaller pool has a floatable floor, which Stewart says is useful from a programming perspective for teaching children and people with disabilities how to swim. The floor is 7 feet deep at one end and can go to “zero-depth entry level with a push of a button,” Stewart says.

The design process included input from the school district, as well as JCPRD, and Stewart says the center can go “well beyond” the needs of the school district, possibly becoming a community, regional, or national attraction.

Competitive swimmers also were on the team that created the design concept, providing input regarding the pool, as well

as for changing rooms, coaches’ rooms and timing systems, according to Stewart.

Derek Berg, head swimming and diving coach for Shawnee Mission High School, says the facility is impressive “from an architectural standpoint” and has a lot of deck space and a “great layout” for children to swim.

“I think it’s a wonderful facility for everything that we need and that we do,” Berg says.

All high schools in the district, according to Berg, have six-lane, 25-yard pools with “decent” spectator space, but those spaces are aging. He said seating was a problem for any swim events larger than a dual meet.

Berg, who has been with Shawnee Mission for two years and coached at Blue Valley North High School for a decade prior, says he was surprised it took as long as it did for a facility of this nature to be built in the metro area. Something of this scope, he said, could allow for hosting events like USA Swimming meets and Master Swim championships.

“I was excited to see that we were going to finally have a facility that could be in part of that conversation and could attract big meets, like the state meet, possibly,” Berg says.

JCPRD also was involved before the design process and communicated with the Shawnee Mission School District about opportunities for the recreation department to operate and manage the facility.

The economic impact of the center, Stewart says, is that the pool could bring in visitors from the region, as well as throughout the country, to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, and shop in the area.

“It has a very positive economic impact,” Stewart says. “[I’ve] already heard from some of the businesses.”

The center has held at least 50 events since it opened at West 87th Street in Lenexa.

“For the first year, it already has been a major attraction and is going very well,” Stewart says. He says he’s received positive feedback from swimmers and spectators alike.

The Boys Swim and Dive Team practiced at the new aquatic center and all home meets were hosted there, along with league championships, Berg says.

“It was a great facility for competition and spectators. … I think the Sunflower League Championships really showcased how good of a space it is for those big meets,” he says.

That the city, school district, and JCPRD came together to offer something to the community shows the benefits of working together, Stewart says. “These public-public-public partnerships really take the resources the community has and make the most out of it.”

Berg says the teams still are using the pools at the high schools because the new facility won’t handle all of them at the same time.

The facility has been closed as a safety precaution amid the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to reopen in the “phase out” portion of the Johnson County Parks and Recreation District Recovery Plan. As of press time, the aquatic center remained closed.

The 50-meter pool for competitive swimming features a 13-foot diving well and four diving boards. In addition to competitions, the 50-meter pool can be used for water polo and basketball, along with traditional swimming lessons.

The 25-yard pool has an adjustable floor and is available for water aerobics, swimming lessons, and more, according to the JCPRD website.

In addition to the pools themselves, the aquatic center also can seat up to 1,000 spectators and has classrooms, locker rooms, concession stands, and “a dry-land training area for athletes,” according to JCPRD.