West Virginia district partners with hospital on aquatic center at high school
The northwest corner of the student parking lot at John Marshall High School in Glen Dale, West Virginia, will be transformed over the next three years into a 60,000-square-foot natatorium with a competition-sized pool, warm-up pool and quarter-mile indoor walking track.
The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register reports that the John Marshall Aquatic Center will be built in collaboration between the Marshall County school district and WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital.
More than 7,000 square feet of the $22 million facility will be designated for WVU Medicine Reynolds’ use.
When the high school was built in 1968, district leaders had to choose between a pool and an auditorium. Superintendent Donald Haskins chose an auditorium but kept the vision of a swimming pool on the high school campus. Haskins died last year.
The proposed two-story natatorium will include two classrooms, a multipurpose room and a concession stand. The competition pool will be an eight-lane, 25-meter pool with movable bulkheads to accommodate short-course and long-course events.
The high school swim team now trains at the Four Seasons pool a few miles away in Moundsville. Snyder noted the “extreme inconvenience” of traveling from the school to practice and the difficulty of scheduling practice time at the public facility. She added that the city was “very accommodating” in letting the team use the facility but was “relieved” by the announcement of the new natatorium.
The building will have an entrance dedicated for high school students and competition use at the student parking lot level. A second-story entrance will cater to WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial patients.
Apart from the convenience the new natatorium would bring, Timmi Snyder, the high school's swim coach, noted the new facility would be large enough to accommodate the more than 30 swimmers on the team. She added that the athletes would also have a “competitive advantage” by being able to practice in the pool they will “actually race and compete in.”
The projected opening date is August 2027.
The architect is Omni Associates-Architects.
