La Jolla’s Coggan pool to close May 11 for four-month renovation

To celebrate the imminent start of the Coggan Family Aquatic Complex’s renovation, supporters are going to get a rare, up-close look at the pool. Really up close.

After the pool, on the campus of La Jolla High School, closes at the end of the day Thursday, May 11, it will be fully drained (which takes two days) and a closing party will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at the bottom of the empty pool.

“The pool looks huge when you are standing next to it, but it looks enormous when you’re inside it, so we thought that would be a fun thing ahead of the closure,” said Coggan board president and campaign co-chairman Dan Pearl.

The closure is expected to last until September for the first of two phases of the complex’s renovation.

The first phase, to be funded by money raised by the La Jolla Aquatic Complex Foundation, its nonprofit owner-operator, will replace the concrete pool deck and the plaster inside the pool and install a new hot tub, Pearl said. About $3.3 million of the $4.1 million needed for the first phase has been raised, largely from private donations.

Phase 2, which is expected in 2024 and is being funded by an undisclosed amount by an anonymous donor, will renovate the buildings, locker rooms and bathrooms.

The pool will remain open during Phase 2.

Coggan’s Olympic-size pool, which opened in 2002, is the home of the physical education programs of La Jolla High and Muirlands Middle schools, the La Jolla High swim and water polo teams, area swim clubs and more. It also hosts CIF San Diego Section water polo tournaments, NCAA competitions and more.

Noting that pools should be refurbished every 10 years or so, the La Jolla Aquatic Complex Foundation board launched a fundraising campaign in June 2021 with more elaborate plans. But with a “crazy increase in costs” associated with the work, the scope was reduced, Pearl said.

“We already repainted [an] entire building and renovated the meeting room in the office part of the building,” he said. “We added [heating, ventilation and cooling] equipment and expanded it with new fixtures and finishes.”

“Countless children, adults and seniors use the pool and have grown up here and gotten a lot out of the community environment and the camaraderie of teams, and we want to keep that spirit going for the next 20 years and beyond,” Pearl said. “There are so many people who have benefited from it. … We appreciate all the support and financial donations.”

However, he acknowledged the pool closure will have a “big impact” on the swimmers and teams who use it.

“The pool is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day and all 17 lanes are completely full,” he said. “We have master swimmers that are more competitive, lap swimmers, club water polo, club swimming, high school activities, there are all kinds of things. ... We’re sorry that we are not going to be open for the public, but the pool is 20 years old and this maintenance is needed. We want to put our head down and do the work as quickly as we can.”

The nearby UC San Diego and Jewish Community Center have offered to allow active Coggan members to swim at their pools during the closure. However, arrangements must be made in advance by emailing Anna Siperstein at annas@cogganaquatics.org.

Members also can pause their membership during the closure, also by contacting Siperstein.

Sandy Coggan Erickson, whose family was part of the facility’s founding team, has called it a “miracle pool” because there wasn’t money or land for it when it was first planned.

“It looks like we are going to do the miracle job again,” she said of the renovation.

The complex was named for the Coggan family in honor of Erickson’s father, Bernard, who was an educator in the San Diego Unified School District.

At the time the aquatic complex was being proposed, La Jolla High School leadership assembled alumni and parents of current students to examine its feasibility. In addition to funding, the question of where to put the pool needed to be resolved.

Jack McGrory, co-chairman of the current campaign and the original, was brought in to consult on where the pool could be located and realized that because La Jolla High was built in the 1920s, “no one knew where the property lines were, so I got some planners and engineers and we divided the land,” he said. “We relocated Fay Avenue [over] six or seven months and ... that created the space to build the pool.”

The result was “better than we expected,” McGrory said. “We’re happy with the way everything turned out and the usage of that pool. It’s a center for competitive events in the community … so we wanted to maintain what has become a valuable asset in La Jolla.”

The Coggan Family Aquatic Complex’s address is 800 Nautilus St. Learn more at cogganaquatics.org or (858) 456-0945. ◆