BY
DAVID RICHARDS - EDITORIAL@SIERRASTAR.COM
SUBMITTED
Construction for a new aquatic complex on the Yosemite High School
campus began in late 2003. The facility will feature two diving
boards and roughly 5,000 sq. ft. of deck. The pool will be used
for both school and community purposes.
DAVID RICHARDS
Steve Raupp, Yosemite High School principal (left), stands in the
wading pool area of the complex next to Tom Fiormonti, YHS athletic
director.
It’s a pool
without water, but that will change. The Baker Swim Complex, a $3
million aquatic facility located on the 100-acre campus of Yosemite
High School, is tentatively scheduled for completion around the
first week in August.
Construction began on the project in November of 2003, made possible
through a combination of both school and bond funds and donations.
Scott Matson, project superintendent, said the pool will be filled
with water sometime around July 25 and will feature one-meter and
three-meter diving boards, a far-side competition section with a
deep end that measures 13 feet and a near-side wading area, which
ranges in depth from two feet to four feet.
The pool will be surrounded by roughly 5,000 sq. feet of concrete
deck and flanked on one side by a 4,000 sq. ft building for accessories,
such as showers, locker rooms and a classroom.
At present, there is no public pool in Oakhurst, no public swim
lessons offered.
“There was a strong interest in the community and a strong need
in the community,” said Steve Raupp, Yosemite High School principal.
“It’s going to be an asset for both us and for the Mountain Area.”
Raupp said that the pool will be used for both school and community
purposes.
At YHS, plans are already underway to include boys and girls water
polo teams in the fall sports lineup, while boys and girls swimming
and diving will be offered next spring.
Coaches have already been hired.
At a May informational meeting regarding prospective student participants
for the new YHS sports, more than 103 students attended.
“We are very pleased with the response from students and are very
excited about the high interest that has been shown by the students,”
Raupp said.
Raupp added that the community use will be somewhat limited during
the school year because of the use by physical education students
and by athletes involved in the aquatic sports offered, but will
increase during the summer months.
Raupp expects a fee-based structure to be in place for the public
by next summer and said that activities offered at the pool will
include swim instruction and recreational swimming.
“As we move forward, we expect to see the development of a strong
youth aquatics program,” Raupp said. “In the summertime, we expect
high use from the community and we will work to structure something
so we can make the facility as accessible to the public in that
time frame as possible.”
As for this summer, Raupp said, if there will be anything offered
to the community, it will be limited, depending on the date the
project is completed.
An aquatic facility at Yosemite High School has been a long time
coming, so long that Valinda Clevenger, now a YHS counselor, was
hired as the swimming coach when the school first opened in 1976.
“At that point, obviously we didn’t have a pool and it didn’t happen,”
Raupp said.
“The Baker Swim Complex is named after Harry Baker, owner of Sierra
Tel, for his many contributions to Yosemite High School and to the
community,” Principal Raupp added.
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