Chillin’ off in the Mt. Whitney pool for the upcoming Swim and Dive season

By: Hannah Johnson

Rangers swimming and dive practice has been moved to Mt. Whitney, possibly for the remainder of the season.

The Redwood’s pool heater has broken yet again right before the dive and swim season, causing the teams to practice at Mount Whitney possibly for the entirety of the season.

Emily Dean ’26 is a freshman on the JV swim team. Not being able to practice at Redwoods pool, she says, “I really wish we were practicing in the Redwood pool right now, but obviously, some difficulties prevent us from doing that.”

Even though Dean won’t be at Redwoods pool for her first swim season she says, “I like the Mount Whitney pool. I don’t have any judgemental notes against it, but I would prefer to be in our home school pool.”

Unlike upperclassmen who have had previous seasons at Redwood, Dean has no experience being in the Redwood pool. “It is my first year so I wouldn’t know what it’s like to swim in the Redwood pool.”

Diego Rodriguez ’25 is a sophomore at Redwood and is doing dive for the second time. Having to relocate to Mt. Whitney, Rodriguez says, “This pool’s better than ours. It’s just newer.” Even though the pool is nicer, he adds, “I miss our pool because it’s kind of a hassle to drive to Whitney.”

Because Redwoods pool is out of commission and not able to host any meets, he says, “Away meets are fun. I’m not mad about that. You get to leave class and it’s more fun.”

Eli Bradshaw ’24 is in his second year of diving this season. The swim and dive teams are having to continue practice at Redwood’s rival school, Mount Whitney. When asked how he feels about it, Bradshaw says, “I honestly like it better. It’s not our pool it’s a community pool. It’s not very heated.”

Because of the broken pool, the dive team has to dive alongside Mount Whitney divers. Bradshaw says, “You’re always around different schools so diving in front of other schools isn’t that big of a deal.”Bradshaw says he will not miss home meets this season. Adding, “I like away meets better.”

Michael Wright is our athletic director at Redwood. He has been the director for three years now. As the director, he oversees “all aspects of the athletic department.”

When asked how often the pool has issues, he says, “It is a very old facility and it does have problems from time to time.”

This season, the pool was shut down because the boiler that is responsible for heating the pool broke down and was unable to be repaired in time for swim and dive season. Wright says that “Anything we do now is just a bandaid unfortunately.”

The pool has been around for many years and Wright says, “It is [his] goal to find a way to build [Redwood] a new pool as soon as possible.” It will be very difficult to accomplish this and will require a lot of time to do.

The boiler that heats the pool is what broke down right before the season. A new one was ordered but is estimated to arrive in eight weeks and installation would take another two weeks.

However, the school board came together to see if they could potentially get a temporary heater from Lindsay in order to get the swim and dive teams back into their home pool before the season ends.

Tags: hannah johnson, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports, rhs, visalia ca