Wednesday, February 13, 2002
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Wednesday, February 13, 2002 |
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Fayette high school swim teams get short end of stick Picture if you will, all of Fayette County's High School football teams, basketball teams and wrestling teams only be able to practice from 6:15 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. three days a week. Do you believe that they would be competitive? Now imagine that the wrestling teams get together for an intercounty championship meet or that two of Fayette football or basketball teams make it to a championship round. Great, right? Exciting? But now imagine no one teammate, parents or students, is allowed to watch it or cheer on the student athletes. One is only permitted to watch the event as a poorly projected image on a semitransparent bed sheet, where no one can even make out who the contestants are nor which teams you are seeing. Do you think the athletes might be a little disappointed that no one is in the stands to cheer them on? Do you think parents, students and coaches might be a little bit upset, if not outraged? Can't happen, you say; no one would permit it. Well, that is exactly what the Fayette County's four high school swim teams endured at the Fayette County Championship Swim Meet on Feb. 1 at Kedron's Aquatic Center. Parents and students were forced into half of a partially lit gym, with basketball games going on in the other half, to watch the championship meet on a bed sheet. This was outrageous and totally unacceptable for all involved, especially the swimmers. Swimmers spend long lonely hours in the pool and many work hard all year round. The culmination of this hard work is the opportunity to compete before family and student friends for their school team. At this meet, the athletes were deprived of cheering fans and some parents were deprived of the opportunity to watch their son or daughter swim in their final high school meet. For a county supposedly with one of the highest per capita incomes in the state, it is disgraceful that the county cannot even provide an indoor pool capable of holding a swim meet where parents and students can watch. Would a football team do well if it could only practice on 20 yards of field shared with three other teams? That is exactly what the swim teams are forced to do. Quality practices are almost impossible as the pool is overcrowded with teams having to share the lanes and limited available pool time with each other at predawn hours. I travel quite a bit and have seen numerous high schools around the Southeast with swimming pools attached to their athletic facilities. Our daughter, when visiting her grandparents in Pennsylvania in the summer, practices with a local high school team that works out year round in their own high school pool. With a new high school being planned, where do these kids believe they will be able to practice? It's time for Fayette County to begin planning and then building a first-class swimming facility that can be used by the soon-to-be five high schools. David Stevens Peachtree City
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