University will close its swimming facility, help fund YMCA
By BETH KNOLL, Staff Writer, The Huntington Herald Press, 3/8/06
The new warm-water pool at the planned Parkview Huntington Family YMCA will be known as the Forester Pool, thanks to a quarter-million-dollar donation from Huntington University.
The university announced its $250,000 pledge to the YMCA on Monday afternoon in President G. Blair Dowden's office. The money will be given over a six-year period, and Dowden said that HU's current pool, which dates to the early 1970s, will close when the new Y opens in the summer of 2008. The HU pool is located in the Merillat Complex for Physical Education and Recreation.
Tom Ayers, vice president for business and finance, said Huntington University spends $60,000 each year to operate its pool, which includes the cost of supplies, chemicals, utilities, and labor costs for routine operations and for lifeguards. Upcoming repairs could cost an additional $217,000 and include cleaning and repainting support beams, replacing or repairing the pool deck, replacing the filter system, upgrading temperature controls, and replacing the air handler unit in the pool area.
“Ignoring for a moment rising utility rates, likely increases in wage rates for lifeguards, and the general impact of inflation on other costs, the university would spend more than $800,000 on the pool over the next 10 years,” Ayers said.
The university's donation will help the Y increase the size of its competition pool from six to eight lanes and increase the size of the warm-water recreational and therapy pool, which will bear the name of the university's athletic teams.
“The larger pools will be able to handle all the additional programming needs that the university currently conducts in (its) existing pool as well as the YMCA's needs,” said Dan Akeley, executive director of the YMCA.
For 10 years after the new YMCA opens its pool facilities, students and employees of the university, guests staying at HU for summer conferences, and participants in the university's aquatics classes can swim at the Y for free.
Also, Huntington University will give a discount to YMCA members for use of MCPER facilities, and the YMCA will give a discount to MCPER members to use the Y. The discounts have not yet been set and will be determined on a yearly basis.
Akeley said the family membership rate at the YMCA will be raised from $35 monthly to between $40 and $42 monthly after the new facilities open, and other rates will be raised accordingly.
The MCPER pool will be filled in and its space will be used for other athletic needs when the entire facility is due for remodeling.
“We think it's a good stewardship issue for us,” Dowden said. “The pool is not well-used by our students,” which is typical of university pools these days, he added.
The pool is mainly used for occasional aquatics classes, open swim times, and senior citizen swimming on weekday mornings. Seniors will need a YMCA membership to swim in the Y pool. The YMCA will employ its own lifeguards, and HU students now serving as lifeguards can apply to work at the Y, Akeley added.
Construction of the new YMCA is expected to begin in April or May and should be completed by the summer of 2008. The YMCA will be located adjacent to the university's campus on the grounds of Parkview Huntington Hospital.
Dowden said the university began pool talks with the YMCA 1 1/2 years ago.
The YMCA has acquired $6 million in gifts and pledges toward an overall capital campaign goal of $8 million.
The Y has also asked other organizations, including the Huntington County Community School Corporation, for commitments of pool use. HCCSC Superintendent Tracey Shafer said he and members of the HCCSC board of trustees are still waiting on proposed lease figures from the Y board before making any decisions in the matter.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Saturday, March 3, 2007
The Best in Any Tank, by George!
From an article titled "The Best in Any Tank, By George!" by Coles Phinizy in "Sports Illustrated" 7/22/68
Summing up the merits of his old coach, George says: "Glenn Hummer was the kind of man who would cross a river of burning oil if one of his kids was in trouble. He was also the kind who, if you said a wrong word, would warn you once and the next time slap you across the face. I still have his hand print on my fanny." (Just why Hummer chose to whack Haines on a lower cheek rather than an upper is not clear. Let us leave it that way.)
When Haines first got in the swim Hummer used to cart his team to meets in a Model-T truck. They always put up at "The Cloverleaf Motel"--which is to say they camped out on the greensward. When it rained hard they moved under the overhang at the nearest filling station. Although Hummer's vehicles got better in time, his driving did not. One slick winter day, at the wheel of a secondhand bus, Hummer missed the T in a road, went through a fence and, without so much as a snort of dismay or a downshift, did a smart turn in a cornfield, emerged through the hole he had just made in the fence and proceeded in his intended direction. "Glenn Hummer is the only man I know," George insists, "who could leave Terre Haute for Indianapolis and end up in Lafayette, going in the opposite direction. When we drove at night I would sit beside him and keep nudging him. 'I've only got one eye closed,' Hummer would tell me. In 1961, or maybe '62, when I took a Santa Clara team back to the waterworks pool in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the moment I drove to the place I knew where I was. I drove right past the pool and up a hill, and there, camping in a tent in the same spot, was Glenn Hummer and six or seven of his kids." (For those who feel history, however disjointed, should be brought up to date, Glenn Hummer is still at it, doing his best to keep his vehicles on the road and producing swimmers who are far better than Haines. (His Huntington team won the national YMCA championship this year.)
From an Obituary of George Haines by Cecil Colwin in "Swim News" 5/1/06:
Records at the Huntington YMCA show that a Haines has been a member of the "Y" since 1932, and this is where George and his brothers became interested in swimming under the spell of coach Glenn Hummer, coach-mentor at the local YMCA, who was also the high school biology teacher.
In the 1940s, George Haines was a member of the Huntington YMCA swim team that Hummer coached to two YMCA National Championships. Glen Hummer was to become the major factor in developing the young George Haines' interest in competitive swimming, and in the shaping of his character. Hummer's friendship and guidance continued as he assumed a mentor role for George when he began his competitive coaching career in the 1950's.
Even before he became a swimming coach, Haines learned the value of a good early distance background, because Glen Hummer first trained him to be a 1500 swimmer. (Haines was later to become the conference champion in the 50 freestyle at San Jose State College in California, a big drop from swimming the 1500!)
When Hummer died, Haines said.: "He was a great, great man, His techniques were ahead of the time. I felt his loss as if an arm had been cut off."
Summing up the merits of his old coach, George says: "Glenn Hummer was the kind of man who would cross a river of burning oil if one of his kids was in trouble. He was also the kind who, if you said a wrong word, would warn you once and the next time slap you across the face. I still have his hand print on my fanny." (Just why Hummer chose to whack Haines on a lower cheek rather than an upper is not clear. Let us leave it that way.)
When Haines first got in the swim Hummer used to cart his team to meets in a Model-T truck. They always put up at "The Cloverleaf Motel"--which is to say they camped out on the greensward. When it rained hard they moved under the overhang at the nearest filling station. Although Hummer's vehicles got better in time, his driving did not. One slick winter day, at the wheel of a secondhand bus, Hummer missed the T in a road, went through a fence and, without so much as a snort of dismay or a downshift, did a smart turn in a cornfield, emerged through the hole he had just made in the fence and proceeded in his intended direction. "Glenn Hummer is the only man I know," George insists, "who could leave Terre Haute for Indianapolis and end up in Lafayette, going in the opposite direction. When we drove at night I would sit beside him and keep nudging him. 'I've only got one eye closed,' Hummer would tell me. In 1961, or maybe '62, when I took a Santa Clara team back to the waterworks pool in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the moment I drove to the place I knew where I was. I drove right past the pool and up a hill, and there, camping in a tent in the same spot, was Glenn Hummer and six or seven of his kids." (For those who feel history, however disjointed, should be brought up to date, Glenn Hummer is still at it, doing his best to keep his vehicles on the road and producing swimmers who are far better than Haines. (His Huntington team won the national YMCA championship this year.)
From an Obituary of George Haines by Cecil Colwin in "Swim News" 5/1/06:
Records at the Huntington YMCA show that a Haines has been a member of the "Y" since 1932, and this is where George and his brothers became interested in swimming under the spell of coach Glenn Hummer, coach-mentor at the local YMCA, who was also the high school biology teacher.
In the 1940s, George Haines was a member of the Huntington YMCA swim team that Hummer coached to two YMCA National Championships. Glen Hummer was to become the major factor in developing the young George Haines' interest in competitive swimming, and in the shaping of his character. Hummer's friendship and guidance continued as he assumed a mentor role for George when he began his competitive coaching career in the 1950's.
Even before he became a swimming coach, Haines learned the value of a good early distance background, because Glen Hummer first trained him to be a 1500 swimmer. (Haines was later to become the conference champion in the 50 freestyle at San Jose State College in California, a big drop from swimming the 1500!)
When Hummer died, Haines said.: "He was a great, great man, His techniques were ahead of the time. I felt his loss as if an arm had been cut off."
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