Delays not unusual for swim team

Central High School's swim team is used to dealing with delays.

Several times over the years, storms have blown off the swimming pool's "bubble" roof. But in the course of a normal fall swim season, coach Dayna Powell said, there is a delay of about two weeks while the city transforms the outdoor pool into an indoor one. That includes draining the pool, refilling it and erecting the roof.

Powell said she has built that delay into her schedule, sometimes using the outdoor Capaha pool, and sometimes doing "dry land" work, which includes running and push-ups.

The team began practice Aug. 6, swimming daily at the roofless Central pool. Labor Day, Sept. 3, started the regular delay of getting the pool ready, and swimmers did more dry land work. But Monday, the day the team was supposed to start practicing at Central Municipal Pool, swimmers and coaches learned it would may be closed between two and four weeks, said Mark Coots, who has a son on the team.

Powell said she won't let her swimmers use outdoor pools when the temperature drops below 76 degrees. She said the team's biggest home meet of the year -- the Oct. 6 Cape Rock Invitational -- is in serious jeopardy.