The last time the U swimming program got a major update to its facilities, Lyndon Johnson was in the oval office and “In the Heat of the Night” was winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was 1968-eight years before the U even had a women’s swim team.
So in other words, it’s been a while. The wait is paying off this summer, as the Natatorium is undergoing a major facelift.
The focal point for the project is the diving well. Gone is the leaky bottom, replaced by one that will be 6 inches lower, as well as a new gutter system.
“Increased depth always helps,” U head coach Mike Litzinger said. “The pool was built in 1968 and the quality of competitive diving has certainly changed quite a bit. The athletes are more powerful now and the dives are more difficult, which takes them deeper.”
But the most noticeable change to the diving area will be above water. The flimsy diving platforms have been taken out, replaced by a giant concrete block U. The U will hold the 1-meter and the 3-meter platforms, allowing a customized look and a more anchored diving surface.
“It’s going to be very unique, but also something that will bring our diving area into the modern times,” Litzinger said. “We were a little bit behind the curve. There’s going to be a great cosmetic change, but there’s going to be an athletic effect to it as well.”
Behind the scenes will be a completely renovated locker-room complex. The men will get a new changing room and showers and, finally, the women will get changing rooms and showers period.
Since the facility was built before the team went co-ed, the females have had to change in the general HPER locker room since their inception. The men’s locker room is big enough that it can be cut in half and refurnished, giving both sexes equal space and new clubhouse-style lockers.
Not only is it more comfortable for the women, but it helps Utah keep its Title IX compliance, as the rule says both men and women’s teams must have equal changing facilities.
Also included in the new locker complex is a meeting room built in a roomy old equipment office.
“This is a project that (Utah Athletic Director) Chris Hill had been talking about ever since I arrived at Utah five years ago,” Litzinger said. “It was a matter of making sure we could come up with the funds.”
With the diving well slated for repairs anyway, the locker room and diving platform projects were able to “piggy back” on the construction costs of the dive pool, allowing for all the projects to be completed in time and on budget for the upcoming season.
The Utes will try out their digs for the first time in October, when the men and women-both aiming to defend their respective conference titles- open their 2005 campaign.
