Indiana Swim Club Forced to Pay High YMCA Rent, Still Shut out of High School Pools Due to COVID-19

underwater-T-public-pool-generic-missouri-state, swimming-south-carolina-jamie-cail-nakasone

While pools continue to open across the country, the Indiana Swim Club (ISC) is still struggling to find time in the water — and it is taking a toll.

Prior to COVID-19, the ISC had time in two area high schools. But one is under construction and the other high school is keeping the water for school use only because of the pandemic.

So the ISC, coached by Chip Kline, had to find a new place to swim. The choices were pay nearly $10,000 per month to rent space at local YMCA pools or continue dry land training only with no pool access.

ISC President Jody Madeira submitted a COVID-19 safety plan to school officials, citing other guests being allowed on school property. Monroe County Community Schools officials have not allowed any outside groups to use school facilities due to concerns over COVID-19.

“They are keeping us out because of COVID, but they are allowing in spectators in indoor events such as volleyball. We are really resisting the insinuation that we are in the same category as a spectator at a sporting event or a ‘guest’ because we are a meaningful component in the training of district athletes—for example, we have high school swimmers swimming with us, as well as middle school swimmers who will begin training in Jan. 2021,” Madeira told Swimming World. “We’ve been in the water since June 1^st, but have had to commute one hour roundtrip to pools outside Bloomington, and paid $9,000 in rental costs for those facilities. Now we’ve had to pay $10K per month since Aug. 17, but this situation will continue until March of 2021 at least—but perhaps longer. Although we’ve had two high schools pools where we practiced, one went down for renovations in March of 2019, and was supposed to be done in March of 2020, but has been severely delayed (last year, we had to pay much more reasonable rental costs of $26,000 to Indiana University to rent three pools there).”

• More USA news here

The club is set to meet with MCCSC officials on Tuesday.

“Our usual agreement with the high schools is that we practice for free, sharing the space at times when high school teams are not using them,” Madeira said. “Customarily, this works out to evenings and weekends when before and after the high school season, and weekends during the high school season. However, it’s a perfect storm of factors. We’re not aware of anyone who’s having to pay comparable rental fees for pool space—but our only other choice is not to swim.”

The Indiana Swim Club is fundraising to raise money to remain in the water.

“We have been fundraising,” Madeira said. “We’re closing in on $10,000 out of a $30,000 for a swim-a-thon. We can sustain this to mid-January and then we will have to stop swimming.”

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

1 Comment

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Rusty Bliss

3 years ago

This is sadly all too common with the YMCA. Even before covid