Coronado Welcomes College Swim Teams

Thursday, 31 December 2009 13:36

Written By: Ken Ireland

Between December 13^th and January 15^th Coronado will play host to nearly 200 collegiate swimmers and coaches taking advantage of our weather and the superb aquatics facility on the Coronado High School campus.

The Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex (BBMAC) will be the winter home for seven college teams and world class swimmers, including perennial Mountain West Conference Champion University of Nevada Las Vegas. College teams from as far away as Wisconsin and Alberta, Canada will take advantage of Coronado’s hospitality, hotels and restaurants and the exceptional training available at BBMAC.

The community benefit of having out of town teams train at BBMAC extends well beyond revenue for the facility. “Most of these teams stay in town and our local hotels benefit in a time that is usually slow for them” explained Joe Cook, President of the BBMAC Foundation. In addition, local restaurants also benefit “Swimmers are a hungry lot and they wear their sweats and team gear everywhere,” added Carrie Fisher-Fernan, the BBMAC’s Director, “you know it is them when you see them along Orange Avenue with ice cream and bags of food.” Coronado also offers teams an opportunity to live close to training. Added Fisher-Fernan “The teams like Coronado because they can forgo vans since they stay close enough to the facility to be able to walk to and from practice.”

This Christmas training period is particularly challenging for Fisher-Fernan this year as she is juggling pool time with our collegiate visitors as well as local teams. The closure of the pool at the Coronado Community Center for scheduled maintenance has resulted in the teams and other users coming to BBMAC as well. “I’ve been able to fit all the college teams and clubs in with a little time left over for recreational swimmers, but the BBMAC is busy from about 5:30 am until 9 pm almost everyday over the holiday period” said Fisher-Fernan, “It’s great to see this facility being utilized to its maximum potential.”

Fisher-Fernan is actively working with out of area college and club teams to make available other training opportunities, such as spring break periods, as well as working with San Diego-based clubs to make training time available during the summer, when BBMAC’s Olympic length facility is in high demand. In addition, high profile meets such as last summer’s Junior Olympics competition, which brought over 1,000 competitors and parents to Coronado, are scheduled at BBMAC again in February.

“Having out of town club and college teams come to BBMAC to train in this superb aquatics complex aids our facility” said Cook, “but it also benefits businesses in town and enhances Coronado’s reputation as a tourist destination.”