January 2, 2019
By Alex Tang
Athletics are the backbone of any school's culture. Sports can provide opportunities for students to make friends, exercise and learn invaluable skills such as teamwork and perseverance. With Minuteman Career and Technical High School losing its swimming pool, Lexington High School’s boys and girls swimming teams are in jeopardy. The only solution is to build a new pool in Lexington.
With more than 25 Middlesex League Championships, the boys swimming team has captured more titles than any other team at LHS. The boys and girls teams collectively have 30 members, but this number could be much higher with a bigger facility. In addition to housing the two LHS swim teams, Minuteman Tech also allows two competitive USA Swimming teams to utilize the facility on a regular basis. This hectic scheduling makes it difficult for LHS teams to create regular, heavy practice schedules. With a new pool, Lexington could generate revenue from renting it to the two USA Swimming teams while also enabling LHS swimmers to practice more effectively. In addition, LHS would save the $23,000 it currently pays Minuteman Tech to use its pool. Furthermore, the swim teams could expand to include both varsity and junior varsity divisions, which would provide opportunities for students with a range of experience levels.
A swimmer myself, I know that the early Saturday morning practices and four-hour-long meet sessions instill discipline and perseverance. Swimming has enabled me to grow as both an athlete and a person. But when I talk to my friends about the grim future of the team, they just shrug it off and say “Lexington has other sports that are more important than swimming.”
Boys and girls swimming have 0.22 and 0.32 injuries per 1000 players respectively, while football and other sports have two or more per 1000 players. Swimming is safer and swimmers reap the same, if not greater benefits, as other athletes. But while our town cheers for soccer, basketball and football, swimming is underfunded and unpopular.
The LexSwim organization is proposing a new pool along with a fitness and wellness center on the grounds next to the Community Center. Although this is a viable option, the town has not included the construction of a new pool in its budget for the 2019 fiscal year.
The bottom line: no pool could mean no team, and we could really use the team.
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