When walking by Webster Pool, one is immediately confronted with massive floor-to-ceiling windows that cover the facade of the building.

But after the windows, the glory fades.The six-lane pool measures 23 meters long, 13 meters wide, far from the normal 50-meter-long pools other top-notch schools use. One would never guess that Webster houses two Division I swimming teams.

But it does. Although it is about 50 years old, Webster Pool still serves as home for the Syracuse swimming programs.

The grandstands look worn and strikingly resemble the stadium seats above Archbold Gymnasium’s basketball court.

“It’s a 50-year-old facility that isn’t the same as it was 50 years ago,” SU swimming head coach Lou Walker said, “so in that respect, it comes up short.

‘It’s vintage. There are some things we can’t do.’

For example, the men’s and the women’s teams are relegated to a rotational practice schedule because the pool can’t accommodate the 41 swimmers at once. The swimmers divide into three groups, with each group focusing on a particular skill, such as distance, speed and specialty strokes.

‘It’s easier to swim in three groups,’ sophomore Elyse McDonough said. ‘It’d be impossible if we all swam at the same time.’

While convenient for swimmers, the rotating schedule causes coaches to spend about three hours more practice time in Webster Pool than most schools spend at their respective pools.

‘Webster Pool does not have enough lanes (for the team) to compete at an elite level,” Pittsburgh head coach Chuck Knoles said. “However, with that said, Coach Walker does a fantastic job. I don’t know how he does it. Whereas I will spend three hours on practice, Lou will spend five.’

Though the age of Webster Pool hinders practice, the pool also affects Syracuse’s recruiting efforts. Having ‘probably the oldest Big East facility’ doesn’t help with drawing elite swimmers, SU Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel said.

‘Certainly,” Walker said, “we’re definitely concerned (with how it affects recruiting).”

Said Knoles: ‘When a recruit goes to Trees Pool (the Pittsburgh swimming facility), and they see 27 lanes, then they go to Webster and see six, who has the better place to train?’

Webster Pool doesn’t even match the pool at McDonough’s high school, Bethlehem Central, in Delmar, which is bigger, faster and — perhaps most important — just 20 years old.

Pittsburgh boasts the largest indoor swimming facility east of the Mississippi River.

First, there’s the 50-meter-by-23-meter, Olympic-sized pool that’s as wide as Webster is long.

Then there’s the separate area for platform and diving boards. Naturally, Trees Pool hosts the Big East Championships annually.

When the Empire State Games were held in Central New York last summer, many athletic events were held at SU. While the diving events were held in Sibley Pool in the Women’s Building, where the SU diving team competes, the swimmers were bused 15 minutes to Nottingham High because of Webster’s drawbacks.

Syracuse has no plans to further improve Webster, either. Nor will it build an Olympic-sized pool.

Funding is the most significant issue in terms of replacing Webster Pool, Crouthamel said.

‘It’s among a number of priorities that are in need of upgrading,’ Crouthamel said. ‘Even if it is a university desire, there has to be a funding source for a new facility.’

There have been some recent improvements. For instance, Syracuse installed a state-of-the art filtration system last summer.

Since a new facility seems unrealistic, SU swimmers continue to hold out hope and ‘make due,” as McDonough said.

‘It’s not the best pool,’ she said, ‘but it’s the swimmer that makes the pool. As long as we have water to swim in and walls around it, we’ll be fine.’

Published on October 9, 2002 at 12:00 pm