Sage Hill just adds water
University High is less than four miles from the Sage Hill School campus, but the trips have added up over the years for the Lightning aquatics programs.
With no on-campus pool, Coach Tom Norton’s teams have used the University pool in recent years. More often than not, those practices and games have been under the lights.
“I think one of the big things that’s maybe hurt our aquatics program a bit is that we’re kind of at the mercy of other pools, the times and the days and the space that they give us,” Sage Hill Athletic Director Megan Cid said. “That’s been hard for our program. Pool space is in high demand in Orange County, especially in this immediate area. We’ve been having to practice at night. It seems like every year it gets later and later.”
But those days are numbered. For the second time in months, construction is happening on campus at Sage Hill, and again the athletic program will benefit.
The Lightning’s new six-court tennis facility opened in March. And earlier this month, ground was broken on an aquatics complex.
The aquatics complex, which will feature a pool that’s 33 meters by 25 yards, is in an area that formerly held blacktop basketball courts and a volleyball court. It is scheduled to open next spring. The hope is that the Lightning swim program will get to use it then, Sage Hill President Gordon McNeill said, by late March or early April.
The tennis center and aquatics center combined will cost approximately $13 million, McNeill said, with the aquatics center being more expensive at approximately $8 million. Fundraising is ongoing; the school has currently raised $10.5 million of the $13 million goal.
“This project is so exciting on a million different levels, but the primary one is that it completes the original master campus plan,” McNeill said. “This goes all the way back to 1998, ‘99, before the campus even opened [in 2000]. Of course, the more exciting part is the student experience, but when you set out a vision all those years ago and to see it completed? It’s pretty special. There’s so many people to thank for that. This will be the icing on the cake.”
Sage Hill aquatics programs have had relative success. The boys’ water polo team last fall finished second in the Academy League and won a wild-card game in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs before losing at Ayala. The boys’ swimming team this spring earned its second straight Academy League title.
Taras Polakoff, a Sage Hill swimmer who will be a senior next year, said having the aquatics center on-campus will be beneficial.
“I feel like swimming is very under-represented at our school,” Polakoff said. “There’s not really that much hype about it. Having a pool on-campus, people can actually come to the meets and see what the swim team’s all about. That’s amazing.”
The aquatics center pool will be eight feet deep for full floating water polo matches. It’s also set to include eight deep lanes for competitive swimming, as well as four warm-up lanes, starting blocks and a high-tech touch pad timing system.
The complex also will include spectator seating and a separate building that will include boys’ and girls’ locker rooms, restrooms and a four-bed athletic training room that Sage Hill athletic trainer Meaghan Beaudoin will surely appreciate.
With a pool on-campus, Cid said interest in the Lightning aquatics programs should increase.
“I do expect to see growth in our boys’ water polo and our swim and dive programs,” she said. “They’re going to be right here on campus, so when we have swim meets or water polo games, other kids can go over and watch the meets or games. Playing off-campus, we haven’t had a lot of spectators. It’s not convenient for people and the games are late at night.”
Sage Hill used to have a girls’ water polo team as well, but that disbanded after 2008 due to declining interest. Last fall, two girls, Rachael Jaffe and Paige Solaas, played on the boys’ team.
“If we see that interest, we will go that route,” McNeill said. “There’s not any master plan to say that we’re going have girls’ water polo in three or five years, that’s not a conversation we’re having. But of course, like we do at Sage Hill School, if a group of people were really passionate about something, we’ll look at it.”
Sage players will no longer need to practice or play games at University High.
“The entire energy on campus transforms when you bring these facilities to Sage Hill School,” McNeill said. “We already saw it with boys’ tennis, where kids were coming off a lacrosse match or a volleyball match. They knew there was a tennis match going on, so they came by and supported their teammates. This just makes it so the kids can be all-in on everything we’re doing.
“When you see it, when it’s completely done, it’s just going to be so beautiful. I’m excited for the students. They’re really going to get fired up. It’s going to change things.”
