Two River Schools Swimming Out of Water

The closing of a Deal pool this month sent some area high school swim teams scrambling for space at the height of the short season, where pool time was already at a premium.

The Jewish Community Center (JCC) is known to swim parents, inside and outside of the Jewish community, as a center for swim meets for Two River teams. The JCC filed for bankrupty in December. Though it is still operating with a skeleton crew, Board President Stephen Levy made the decision to close the pool when he said he didn't have the money to keep the lights on.

Though Deal is miles away from Rumson, the closing had more than a ripple effect on 's (RFH) swim team.

"There is a new pool down in Neptune High School, but swims out of there. I know Ocean and Red Bank Regional moved to the Boys and Girls Club in Asbury, but they don't have great hours," said RFH swim mom Linda Decelle. "The YMCA doesn't have any time. I was talking to a Red Bank mom who said, 'I can't believe the Red Bank Y can't make a little time for the public high school they share a town with.' There's just no where to swim."

When Patch spoke to Levy last week he blamed the closing on loss of revenue from schools backing out or not renewing their contracts to swim at the JCC this season.

Though it appears that the JCC's trouble began long before this winter. When  administration heard that the JCC was in serious financial trouble this year, they decided it was time to pull the team out and search for a new practice location before the season got started, said Athletic Director Tony DeOrio.

"Our business administrator chose the safe route," he said about the move, "and it paid off."

Teams like Red Bank Regional, RFH and Ocean High School decided to continue with the JCC only to have to leave just as the season got into full swing last month.

Historically, Monmouth Regional swam at where it enjoyed better than market rates for the pool and great practice times right after school. That pool dried up when the fort closed.

DeOrio looked into pool in Neptune and at Monmouth University, but the only time slots available were 9 p.m., too late, he said, for the kids.

He said he felt lucky when offered its pool to his team. "It's fantastic to have the ability to swim there," he said. But he admits the situation comes with drawbacks. The agreement only gives his kids two or three days of swim practice and a 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. time slot, plus no home meets. "I'm sure we lost a few swimmers because of that," he said.

But DeOrio said, the school is taking it in stride hoping that a move next season will get the team to a better situation.

Next DeOrio hopes to move the Falcons team to a pool being constructed on Wycoff Road in Tinton Falls at the NJRC Aquatic & Fitness Center. DeOrio said that he was assured by the proprietor at a town planning board meeting that, "We would get a preferred swimming time because we are in town." 

Red Bank Regional Athletic Director Louis Dal Pra, who also has a letter of intent into the pool's operator, said that he and his team knew of the trouble at the JCC but tried to stick it out for the season.

"We saw the thing dissolve before our eyes," he said of the situation at the community center. Dal Pra said his school had to provide its own lifeguards and that sometimes the center ran out of pool chemicals for lack of funds. When shortly before winter break he heard the electricty would be shut off, Dal Pra said, he knew it was time to go.

"We would have been happy to stay," he said, "But if there is a chance that the kids are going to get sick or that the lights aren't on, we're not going to chance it."

Now his team swims at the Asbury Park unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County, where he says the staff have been very accomodating. The new location costs about the same as the $10,000 RBR paid to the JCC and his team is able to practice four days a week, either between 6 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. or 7 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Athletic directors at Ocean High School and RFH pulled their swimmers out of the JCC at the same time as RBR.

Swim mom Linda Decelle said she was glad that RFH found a new place to swim but the schedule is a killer.

"So now we have Saturday and Sunday at Monmouth University, which if you have a kid on the swim team, that blows your whole weekend. It is right smack dab in the middle of the day from 2-3 p.m. and they will do dry land training during the week."

But RBR's Dal Pra says not to confuse the reluctance of Ocean, RBR or RFH to move from the JCC with poor planning. RFH's Superintendent Pete Righi said their athletic director has been working on finding the team a new place to swim since September.

"We had three ADs (athletic directors) on the phone everyday. We're on plan B now but we also had a plan C and D," he said.

Do you know of a good place for these teams to move? Tell us in the comments section below this article!

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the Monmouth Regional swim team. Go Falcons!