The City of Culver City is planning to close the Culver City Plunge pool for six weeks, starting December 19 and running through January, for maintenance reasons. At the City Council meeting on Monday, September 28, members of the Girls Varsity Water Polo team turned out in large numbers to protest.
One of those students was Julia Gordenstein, a senior at Culver City High School and the captain of the team. Gordenstein told the News that the City usually closes the Plunge for two weeks during their season, which is already challenging. But this year, it will be closed for six weeks to fix damaged pool tiles, replace filters, update pool structure, and rebalance the water.
“Culver City High School is one of the only High Schools in Southern California that does not have a pool on campus despite having active water polo and swim teams,” Gordenstein said. “Our coaches and players have for years begged for a facility on campus, but have been continuously denied. For this reason, we rely on our community pool, which is the Plunge, for practices and games. With girls water polo being a winter sport, our season runs from late November through the beginning of February. This closure would align with the majority of our games and would make it so we are unable to hold practices for 1.5 months of our 2 month season.”
The situation is complicated further by the fact that all of the team’s league games take place within the time allocated for the closure.
“This would mean we wouldn’t have any home games, which are an opportunity for the community to gather and celebrate our sport, particularly women’s sports,” Gordenstein said. “If we are unable to find alternative facilities, we would either play games without any practice in a pool or we wouldn’t have a season. Many girls on the team are trying to be recruited to play in college, and this closure would completely crush their chances. The seniors who have dedicated all of their high school years to this sport wouldn’t be able to have a season during their very last year of playing the sport. Many of us also rely on these practices as our mode of physical exercise, which would also be taken away. Playing a varsity sport already comes with stress and responsibility, but this closure would in every way worsen the anxiety that high school students already face. We spent the entire summer and fall semester of school preparing for a season that we might not even get to have.”
The students all spoke eloquently at the meeting, and made themselves heard. “At the end of the meeting, the council told us that they would be discussing the issue at their following meeting which is on Tuesday, October 13th at 7 pm,” Gordenstein said. “Since then, we have been notified that the Plunge management is working on a rebuttal that they will present at this meeting. The team is planning on showing up again to stand up for our rights to utilize our community pool as a team that represents the city of Culver City.”
In the meantime, the team is forced to consider alternative arrangements, and that is proving challenging.
“We do not yet have any definitive regarding pools we could practice in,” Gordenstein said. “Our coach, Nestor Dordoni Jr, has restlessly reached out to other facilities trying to get them to sympathize with us. Of course, this would require rival teams to allow us to practice with them, which is difficult. One of the options that has been discussed is practicing at Torrance Aquatics center from 7 to 9 pm. This would require us to take a bus to Torrance, which is 16 miles away, and a bus back. This would mean we would be arriving back in Culver City no earlier than 10 pm. This would take a toll on the team academically, as students will be getting less sleep and less time to study and succeed in difficult AP classes. This would also mean our players won’t get to have dinner with their families, taking away time that we all need and value. Many students also participate in plays at our school that have rehearsals around that time, meaning our players would have to give up their other activities. I find it ridiculous that we have to sacrifice so much to even possibly have a season when every other sport at our school is given all the resources they need to succeed.”
More news as we get it.