Marion swimmers ride wave of success in final year of pool
Sports reporter
With a new coach this year the Marion REC swim team is having good results at its old pool.
This will be the final summer the city will have the current pool, and more than 80 kids are taking advantage of the swim team. Next summer, while a new indoor pool is being built, Marion won't have a pool.
Swim coach Molly Rhodes, who has swam for 10 years and taught swim lessons for four, said in the end it will be worth the wait.
"We have some swimmers ask, 'What are we gonna do without a pool?'" she said.
Rhodes said more than likely they may practice in some neighboring towns a few days a week with a small team, but they won't be able to host any events.
Eight lanes, compared to the current six, in the new facility will make meets go faster, and the pool will be measured by the standard yards instead of the current meters.
"The starting blocks will be nice," Rhodes said of the new pool. "We can't have them now because we are too shallow on one end. It's only three feet."
Team success
With 84 swimmers on the team, Marion has enjoyed success in the water this summer.
Rhodes said she takes about 75 kids to each meet because some are gone on vacation.
The team finished first in one meet and fourth Saturday at the Mid-Kansas League meet. Rhodes, a 2005 Marion High School graduate, said she is enjoying her inaugural year as coach.
"It's going well for the first time," she said. "I like the kids, but there is a lot of work outside of practice."
Rhodes said she spends around 15 hours each week completing paperwork for the upcoming meet. She doesn't mind however, because of the help she gets at the meets.
Marion residents and swim team parents Chris Edwards and Diane Richmond help organize other parents to help at the home meets, something Rhodes greatly appreciates because corralling the kids at each meet is a big job. And she knows the parental support in Marion definitely spills over into swimming.
"Our parents are very good at helping," she said. "Some towns have trouble finding help, but ours is very willing to do that."
In full swing
For now the pool is focusing on how well the swimmers are doing, instead of dwelling about next summer.
Pool manager Deanna
Thierolf is proud of the team.
"We've hosted two meets and the team has done very well this year," she said.
Thierolf said some parents have been asking about a team next year and acknowledged that a lot of kids still want to swim.
"I'm just not sure what's going to happen next year," she said. "We'll have to work something out."
That may include two days in the water somewhere and three days the rest of the week working with weights or running. Once the new indoor pool is built, practice will be back to normal and meets will run faster with the eight lanes. Until then, the swimmers and staff must enjoy the final year of the 50+-year-old pool.
With the steady stream of children swimming each day, aerobics classes starting up, and swim lessons in full swing, Thierolf and Rhodes think the summer has gone well.
"We have good attendance all year," Thierolf said.
In the future, that shouldn't change.
