Club will no longer have to rely on space in local high school pools
For the first time since the club was established in 1954, the Scarborough Swim Club (SCAR) will have their own home pool at the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC).
The club will be moving into a new office in the facility in early September, bringing with them about 250 swimmers.
SCAR’s general manager Chris Prendergast said that their phones have been ringing off the hook since the announcement earliere this month, and club members are very excited.
“I was just there (at the TPASC) the other day to finalize some papers and the pool is just amazing,” he said.
“We’re used to so many mediocre facilities that this is going to be an exciting change for us.”
The swim club currently shares their time between five different pool locations.
Weekday workouts are usually held at R. H. King Academy, Bendale Business and Technical Institute, and Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute. They have also used pool facilities at W. A. Porter Collegiate Institute. Saturday morning practices and all hosted meets are held at Sir Wilfrid Collegiate Institute.
Prendergast said that working in high school facilities can be tricky because the Toronto District School Board has about 10 or 12 weeks of a year when they do not rent out the facilities. During these weeks, the club is left with no training space.
According to managing director Robert Singleton, TPASC has been reaching out to many groups within the community for a long time.
He said a lot of groups are coming to train in their state-of-the-art facilites.
“The sports centre is the best aquatic facility in Canada and it’s right in Scarborough,” he said. “[The TPASC] will mean great things for the Scarborough Swim Club but also, great things for the community.”
Some of the other groups that will be training at the facility include, Swimming Canada, Diving Canada, Water Polo Canada and Synchro Canada.
Other sports groups also include the UTSC athletics and recreation department, the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, the Scarborough Titans Volleyball Club and many others.
SCAR will be the biggest swim club that will be moving into the sports centre. They will have prime access to the aquatics centre’s two Olympic size pools, multi-level diving boards, and dry land diving facilities.
The Sports Centre also has a four court gymnasium space, an indoor track, a rock climbing wall and a weight and cardio room.
“A few really high quality swimmers will be training there everyday,” said Prendergast. “Seeing how (these athletes) conduct themselves, even things like diet and mind set... those are going to be amazing examples that our swimmers didn’t have access to in the past.”
The club currently trains swimmers from ages four to 84 with about 60 per cent of their membership being swimmers 12 years and under. The club provides a wide range of programs for beginners and for nationally competitive programs.
A full list of their programs can be found on SCARswimming.ca.
The TPASC will be open to the public on Sept. 2. Dates for user group tours of the facility will be announced on their website, TPASC.ca, on Monday, Aug. 11.