Effort under way for new pool at Fallbrook High School

Fallbrook High School aquatics parents, coaches, alumni, and others are seeking to replace the school's current swimming pool with a larger facility which has additional amenities.

"We're just kind of in the formative stages, but we're taking in money," said community liaison Don Kuhn. "The long-term goal is to raise five to seven million so we can get a new pool and cover the operating expenses."

Kuhn, who swam and played water polo at San Clemente High School in the 1980s, is the father of a 2015 Fallbrook High School graduate and a current junior. Because he is professionally an investment advisor, he is not on the board of the Fallbrook Aquatics Fund due to a conflict of interest, although he holds the chair position for the fundraising campaign.

Tracy Ewig is the actual Fallbrook Aquatics Fund board president, Lisa Harrison is the board treasurer, and Mark Huasta and Sean Redmond are also on the board.

Redmond coaches the Fallbrook High girls water polo and swim teams and also serves as the school's diving coach. He is also the director of coaching for the Fallbrook Associated Swim Team.

"The next step for us is to establish a foundation and tax ID number, articles of incorporation, and file that with the state so that we can create a committee," said Kuhn. "The foundation doesn't exist yet, so we don't have a board of directors."

Although there is not yet specifically a foundation for the Fallbrook pool, the aquatics backers have partnered with the Legacy Endowment, which will earmark Fallbrook Aquatics Fund donations for the pool project. The use of the Legacy Endowment makes contributions for the Fallbrook Aquatics Fund tax-deductible.

"We can continue to take money that way," said Kuhn.

Fallbrook is one of 25 high schools in San Diego County – including 21 public schools – with an on-campus swimming pool. All 11 Grossmont Union High School District schools and all five Poway Unified School District high schools have their own pools. Coronado, La Jolla, Mar Vista, and Ramona are the other public high schools with on-campus pools, and Army-Navy, Bishop's, Cathedral Catholic, and Mater Dei also have their own pools.

"We've seen other facilities put in," said Kuhn. "They struggle to be able to pay for it."

The Fallbrook group's plan is to raise enough money beyond the actual construction costs so that interest on the excess amount can be used to cover operating expenses.

"In an ideal world we cover as much as possible through an endowment," Kuhn said. "We don't have to rely completely on raising costs for people who use the pool, which is what happened in Coronado."

The current Fallbrook High School swimming pool was completed in 1970.

"That's a long time for a pool to be in existence," said Kuhn, who noted that Fallbrook's pool is shallow at one end and deep at the other end. "Right now the pool that Fallbrook has is small and not built to regulations."

Only a pool that is deep at both ends can be used for CIF water polo playoffs. If the Warriors qualify for a first-round home game, the contest must be played at a neutral site. Currently, the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals are all played at La Jolla High School's Coggan Pool.

Teams prefer non-league games at an all-deep pool to prepare for playoff competition, so Fallbrook as well as the Warriors' opponents desire non-league matches outside of Fallbrook. The new pool would allow for CIF home playoff games.

"It would be regulation," said Kuhn. "It probably won't be all-deep just because of the code, but it will be regulation and Olympic size."

Fallbrook's current pool is 25 yards long, which is the standard lap distance for CIF swim competition, and has six lanes. Olympic swimming laps are 50 meters, and many pools measure 50 meters by 25 yards to allow for both 50-meter laps and 25-yard laps. The new Fallbrook pool would have the 50-meter by 25-yard dimensions.

"We're unable to host long course meets right now," said Kuhn. "Maybe if we had a decent pool then they would come to Fallbrook."

The depth of the pool would allow for a three-meter diving board as well as a one-meter board, and the three-meter springboard is also part of the Fallbrook pool project.

"We could definitely use that for the benefit of the club during the club season," Kuhn said.

The dimensions would also enable Fallbrook's pool to host tournaments.

"I envision being able to host both water polo tournaments and swim meets as a destination event," said Kuhn. "The hotels and restaurants would benefit."

A larger pool would also allow for concurrent lessons or public activity.

"If we had a bigger pool we could run swimming and water polo at the same time," said Kuhn. "The community would have more access."

The increased size will require improvements beyond the pool.

"The deck would kind of have to be reconfigured," Kuhn said.

Although Coggan Pool is on the La Jolla High School campus, it is actually owned by the La Jolla High School Foundation and a joint use agreement with the San Diego Unified School District allows La Jolla High School and others to use the pool.

"That would be ideal here," said Kuhn.

Kuhn noted that if the pool is constructed by a foundation rather than by the school district it would be exempt from some school district procurement regulations, although such an arrangement would require a real estate transaction to transfer the property.

A fence separates Coggan Pool from the rest of La Jolla High School, which allows for community use when the pool is not needed for high school aquatics activity.

"I just hope it's not pie in the sky dreaming," said Kuhn said. "We've got to get the money."