Swim Programs Return with New Supervisor

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Created on Wednesday, 30 October 2024 15:13

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the hiring of an aquatics supervisor, the city Parks and Recreation Division is ready to reopen the Blatchley swimming pool on Nov. 11.
Lap swimming will resume, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Rachel Fox. (Sentinel Photo)

Parks and Recreation coordinator Kevin Knox said it’s been a big effort to get to this point, and expects the news will be greeted with great enthusiasm by the swimming public.
School-related swim programs and the Baranof Barracudas Swim Club continued using the pool while non-school uses were cut back.
“It’s been closed for over a year and the public has been demanding to have that access back for open swims, lap swims, aquarobics, birthday parties, swim lessons,” Knox said. “There was a kind of outcry that somebody needs to take it on, and provide the resources that it really needed to be able to return it as a full community rec program.”
The new pool supervisor is Rachel Fox, a qualified pool and ocean lifeguard, swim instructor and EMT, who came to Sitka earlier this year to work as a kayak guide.
Formerly, the pool was managed by the Sitka School District, with some city support. With a shortage of lifeguards and no pool manager, public access to the pool was limited to lap swims for a few hours on weekdays. But this year the city took over management of the facility, with user fees helping offset the extra cost for expanded public use.
The city’s new Parks and Rec program has been working steadily to line up the personnel and resources to restart programs for the public, starting with lap swims and aquarobics.
Hiring Rachel Fox is a big step for the program, Knox said. She was initially missing a few certifications, but the city covered the cost of her training as a certified pool operator and lifeguard instructor, which were the main hurdles to reopening to the public. Her first day on the job was October 2.
Knox says Fox will be a good fit for the program.
“I’m really excited to have Rachel on board,” he said. “She has really jumped in – metaphorically and figuratively – feet first, making it a top priority for getting the pool back open. She’s super-excited to have this open to the public and provide it as a resource again for everybody, from pool time, to the sauna and everything else.”
When the Assembly approved funding during the budget process last spring, Knox said building a complete community swim program would be an “incremental effort” with various programs added as Parks and Rec was able to train and hire lifeguards, swim instructors and the required pool operator.
Fox is originally from Newport, California, where she grew up swimming from an early age and learning to swim at her local public pool.
“I loved it –– I was always at the pool and we had a pool in our backyard.” she said. At age 12, she joined the local Mesa Aquatics team and also swam on her high school swim and college teams, focused on breaststroke and distance swimming.
During college she became a summertime lifeguard at Bonelli Lake, and after graduating from La Verne College in 2019 with a bachelor’s in anthropology she became the head coach of the Rancho Cucamonga High School swim team.
In college, she qualified to become an ocean lifeguard at Long Beach, California. The rigorous qualifications included placing in the top 50 in a 1,000-yard ocean swim (she placed 18th), a combination of swimming and running tests, five weekends of skills training and multiple interviews. After lifeguarding for a time, she earned her certification as an EMT, firefighter and later an emergency room technician.
She noted her EMT and first aid training came in handy in responding to sting ray stings that were common on her stretch of the beach.
Her position here includes overseeing aquatic programs, hiring lifeguards, and managing the pool. Parks and Rec activities specialist Elle Campbell said she’s excited to see the program take shape to benefit the community.
Knox commented, “Swimming in our neck of the woods is an essential skill. Just from a baseline of being safe around water, or to swim a 10k if you want to swim long distances, it’s a valuable thing to provide to our community as a means of fitness and recreation.”
Other swim programs on the Parks and Rec calendar and Facebook page include aquarobics, which starts 9 to 10 a.m. November 4; lifeguard training, which runs Nov. 9-10 and 16-17. Knox said there is one opening in the lifeguard training class.