There has been much debate and confusion over the maximum capacity for our community pool and "capping" of the swim team.  These are two very separate issues.  

The first issue is the maximum number of people that are legally and safely allowed on the pool deck at any one time.  That number is 187 and is governed by state regulations and permitting.  

The second issue of "capping" the swim team reflects the number of swimmers that can be safely accommodated in the space that the Transition Committee grants available to the swim team.  The size of the swim team is determined not by the maximum capacity of the pool deck, but by the number of lanes available to the swim team for practice sessions.  The swim team can and does honor the max capacity for the pool deck and still have another larger number for max participants based upon scheduling.  

The Transition Committee oversees the pool usage for all Bella Casa Homeowners.  The swim team exists with the permission of the HOA and the Transition Committee determines how many lanes the swim team may occupy each season for practices.

Coach Mark explains this more completely below:

Three Lanes for practices

Ok, let’s start our discussion with the current situation. If we have 9 swimmers per lane and three lanes this means that we would have 27 swimmers in the pool for any practice time. Now let’s use a base family of four for each team member so we’d have an additional 81 people at the pool as family members (3x27). Now add in the Guards (3), Coaches (5) and we get a total of (27+81+8) 116, which means 72 other residents can use the pool.

Four Lanes for practice sessions:

Ok, if we give another lane to the swim team, do they go over capacity? Ok same 9 swimmers per lane now becomes 36 and the same family of four now becomes (36x3) 108. Now add in the Guards (3), Coaches (5) and we get a total of (27+81+8) 152, which means 36 other residents can use the pool.

Swim Meets

Coach you’ve explained that this will have no effect on practice but what about swim meets? With all 186 swimmers, 558 family members, and the other team, won’t this put us way over the capacity for the pool? Actually it won’t and here’s why. We stage each team outside the pool in the parking lot. And only bring in about 6 heats of swimmers. So if you say that we take 6 heats + 1 in the water + 1 finished heat x 6 lanes = 48 swimmers on deck. Then 6 timers per lane, 2 officials, 10 coaches make about 20 staff and the rest is family. So with, let’s say 80 (higher than 48+20) are swimmers and such. Another 108 family can be on deck to watch. We tell family to setup in the parking lot as well and then tell them what event and heat is in the water so family can come into the pool when it’s their child’s turn to swim. Additionally people have setup chairs on the hills outside the pool to also see.

So you’ve shown that we can handle the capacity, what does one extra lane help in moving the cap?

Last Year

First let’s look at last year’s roster and practice times and see what we have. If you notice I don’t use the 9 swimmers per lane in the example above because I personally feel that is too high.

As you can see, we had a capacity issue last year. Since the practice times and lanes were not given to the team until after registration, we had no ability to cap the team to the numbers. We asked for additional space and were denied. At this point the coaching staff worked around the issue by having the 7&8 and 9&10 swim only 25s, get out and walk back to the end of the pool. Additionally, the 6 & unders had far more limited pool time causing complaints from several parents.  I want to make one additional note here on the transitional committee, they formed a week before we had sign ups so they had to come up with a solution quickly.  It was not their fault for the decision being after team signups. 

2017 Capacity

For 2017 the transition committee did two great things for us. First they moved the practice time back to 5:30 so that there was less impact on the community. Second they gave us an extra hour in the morning. This gives us some increased capacity.

So even with the new practice schedule, we’ll still have a few issues but nowhere as bad as last year. And given that no one attends every practice this would be far more manageable. 

Additional lane for afternoon practice

Now let’s add another lane only at night. I would like to keep 3 open lanes in the morning for lap swimmers, but at night it’s impossible to lap swim.

So adding a lane would take us out of the situation of being over crowed in lanes and give an additional 20 open slots to the team. Just some other numbers from the roster last year:

63 of 186 were on traditional calendar, 120 on year round, 3 were home schooled.