When classroom equipment is not functioning properly, it can be difficult to teach the course. The same can be appiled to athletics when a team does not have the resources necessary to go on with their season.
The main pool at the Steven E. Schofield Aquatic Center is currently going under maintenance and different programs have been affected by this situation.
“It affects our masters, it also affects our lap swimmers, our kinesiology classes, ENCORE, enterprise which is our community services so it is much deeper than just one program being affected,” pool manager Deborah Hefter said.
Last semester, there was no swim meet at Pierce due to the same issue.
Hefter said the pools are working all day which leads them to have these problems.
“It’s not always the same issue. They are very complicated. They work 24 hours a day seven days a week without ever being turned off,” Hefter said. “And just like a car that runs that much there is always going to be maintenance or things that have to happen to it and sometimes you can get ahead of them and other times it gets ahead of you.”
Hefter said that this has been happening ever since the pools were built.
Hefter said that the administration are being supportive and expects for the repairs to start this week.
Hefter said the problem this time was that the pump stopped working and since the water was not filtering it was not safe for people to be inside.
Hefter mentioned that during her time being the pool manager it has happened at least once a year.
“Sometimes we plan them to happen so we say when we are going to be shut down for this amount of time and sometimes they happen randomly, but just about every year there is an issue and sometimes I feel like its more because we have two pools. So maybe one has an issue, then they are both fine and then the other pool is not working. They both run on two different systems,” Hefter said.
The water polo game against the Santa Monica College Corsairs had to be moved to Santa Monica because there was no water.
Hefter said that the interim president and vice presidents have been helpful with this issue.
“He has been very active and our vice presidents have been very helpful and getting everything done in a quicker process. Usually it takes time to get things here and get approvals for a lot of pieces with this pool. They have given me verbal permissions so it makes things go quicker,” Hefter said.
Head coach Judi Terhar said this is not the first time they have had this problem.
“The same thing happened last year with the pool but it was a different issue. This time I have been given a few different dates, all the way from soon until the end of the semester,” Terhar said. “We are going with what we have, so this is our option and we are using it.”
Water polo was scheduled to have a home game against the Santa Monica College Corsairs, but, due to the pool not functioning, they had to move the game to Santa Monica.
Cassidy Hoffman, utility player, said that she is frustrated in not being able to have more space to practice.
“I’m really disappointed because the pool is not working, we have the other backup pool, but it is very hard to practice in. Even though our season will end in one week but I hope the pool get fixed very soon,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said the team is trying to work with what they have available.
“It’s difficult to set up and run full, normal practice in the small pool, but we are trying to to make the most of it,” Hoffman said.
Azin Vazirizadeh, attacker, said that practicing in the other pool has given her problems.
“It’s hard because my feet are always touching the floor. That’s why I feel more pain in my knee,” Vazirizadeh said.
