LBCC will unveil its new aquatic center this spring semester, making it one of only two olympic-sized swimming pools in the city of Long Beach.
The 30,000 square feet aquatics facility contains an Olympic-sized pool in the center, new student locker rooms, new team rooms, new coach offices, support rooms, and multi-purpose rooms. The multi-purpose rooms include brand new gym equipment and ice bath machines.
Along with the pool, a spectator watch stand is also being constructed. According to the field engineer, the stand is estimated to hold up to 300 people.
The aquatics center will prioritize its usage for the aquatics team and the kinesiology department.
“The new aquatic center will serve the LBCC athletics teams and the kinesiology department in a very well and safe manner,” said Marlene Drinkwine, the VP of Business Services at LBCC.
Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees and the athletics department are still exploring options for non-athletic LBCC students and the general public to use the facility.
“We do look at opportunities to have community recreations to allow our facility to be used by the general public [which is] acquired under the civic center act,” Drinkwine said. “We are revisiting those policies to make sure they are appropriate for this new facility and the cost of maintenance.”
Drinkwine said they are anticipating fully developing a new plan for community access within the next few months.
The old swimming pool, located in Building R, is scheduled to be renovated in the next 7 to 10 years.
According to the Interim Athletic Director, Kal Stewart, the college is considering bringing back the “movie by the pool” program, where the pool was used to host movies to the general public.
However, the final fate of the old swimming pool is still in discussion.
“The old pool is facing major maintenance issues, and whether to refurbish it or eliminate it is still in discussion,” said Drinkwine.
$15.6 million dollars was the estimated cost of the aquatics center construction. It broke ground in fall 2019 and aimed to finish in fall 2021.
Unlike other things COVID-19 had impacted, the construction process was not affected.
“It had helped the construction, strangely, ” said Drinkwine.
Far fewer students came on campus during the pandemic, so the construction crews weren’t impacted by the education process.The biggest problem was the disruption of the global supply chain.
“We are affected by our ability to get raw materials, or labor… Those economic impacts affected the project,” said Drinkwine.
Chris Oeding, the then assistant coach for the gold medal-winning United States women’s water polo team during the Tokyo Olympics and the current LBCC aquatics coach, is very excited and hopeful for the future of LBCC aquatics teams.
“It will allow us to train in a space that meets and exceeds the technical requirements for water polo and swimming and enable us to host post-conference events,” Oeding said.
LBCC’s aquatics team never had the chance to play home games during playoffs due to the limitations of their facility.
Since the closure of the old swimming pool, the men and women’s water polo, swimming and diving teams have been training at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.
“The team cannot wait for the new aquatic center,” Oeding said, “It is a phenomenal facility that everyone is looking forward to jumping into as soon as it becomes available.”