School’s Swimming and Water Polo teams aquatics don’t have an on-campus training facility, especially considering their incredible success. Lake Mary is one of the only schools in the district without a dedicated training facility for their aquatics program. Why are we denying these athletes the resources and convenience they need to continue excelling in their sport? It’s crucial for the school to acknowledge their accomplishments and provide them with the support they truly deserve.
The Lake Mary High School aquatics program has an impressive history. Fred Tyler was a gold medalist in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He was also the head aquatics coach at Lake Mary High School from 1990 to. Between 2004 and 2007, Tyler coached the Lake Mary Rams to top finishes at the Florida state swimming championships and led the girls’ and boys’ water polo teams to state finals. Tyler coached another Olympian, Brad Bridgewater, who graduated from Lake Mary High School in 1990 and won a gold medal in the 200 meter backstroke at the 1996 Summer Games. In recent years, our aquatics program has made numerous appearances at regional and state finals, signed multiple D1 collegiate athletes, and contributed to Orlando Sentinel Varsity Cup and SAC Championship titles. Their achievements surpass those of many other sports’ teams at Lake Mary High School.
Lake Mary is not the only school without a pool on campus. Until the early 2000s, Lake Mary High School trained at the Longwood Aquatics, Inc pool off E.E. Williamson Road, which is now abandoned. In 2007, the county approved plans for a pool and allowed our school to annex a he land adjacent to the library. However, this project lost funding during the recession and groundbreaking was cancelled. While schools like Lake Howell have benefited from multimillion dollar private donations to fund their pools, other have joint ventures with their city governments to share in the cost of pool construction and maintenance. Our high school is not located within the city limits of Lake Mary and our booster fundraising efforts are currently focused on a new multimillion dollar field house.
Each high school athletic team is responsible for covering the costs of their own program. It’s no secret that football makes money and swimming doesn’t. Does that mean we don’t deserve the same treatment as other teams or schools? During the 2020 to 2022 seasons, the aquatics teams had over twelve different practices times at four different pools, relying on our own conference rivals to offer us access to their facilities. The swim team has currently returned to practicing at the J Douglas YMCA, but this pool is not regulation size and can’t host swim or water polo meets. Additionally, the cost of lane rental is very expensive and aquatic athletes and their families are responsible for covering a majority of these costs.
The achievements of Lake Mary High School aquatics teams are truly remarkable. It’s incredible how they’ve consistently performed despite the clear disadvantages and tremendous obstacles. We strive for fairness in sporting events, so it seems reasonable to strive for fairness in distribution of resources. The success of our aquatics teams is a result of their hard work and dedication. A dedicated training facility, on or off campus, is overdue and well deserved. It’s time for the school and the community to recognize their accomplishments and sacrifices and to provide these athletes with the support they have earned.
