Coggan Pool ready for fall schedule

Summer is an especially busy time at the Coggan Family Aquatic Complex and that won’t change when school resumes Sept. 2. Only the players will be different.

“In summertime we do host quite a bit of water polo,” said Randy Franke, aquatics director for the pool at the corner of Fay Avenue and Nautilus Street at La Jolla High School.

“This year in early July we were able to host the U.S. National Women’s team vs. Australia, number one and number two in the world. Hopefully, that was a warm-up for the Olympics, and a possible gold medal in the games.”

Franke added that the Coggan pool gets lots of use by summer camps when school lets out as well as use by other local schools open in the summer.

“We teach all the camps’ lessons,” he said. “Gillespie School comes and uses the pool for group lessons.”

Water polo players will continue to fill the pool in September, when it plays host to a water polo tournament on back-to-back Fridays and Saturdays.

In November, the pool will host CIF water polo championships for boys. A similar tournament for girls will be in February.

The aquatic center, with its pool measuring 25 yards by 50 meters, also features a spa and locker rooms. It offers daily recreational swimming, masters swim team, club swim team, club water polo, and group and private swim lessons.

The complex is open longer during summer days than during the school year, but when school is in session, the pool is closed in the middle of the day.

The pool, which opened Sept. 15, 2002, was created through the largesse of private donors and community contributions. The Coggan family donated $1.2 million of the approximately $13 million cost of the Olympic-sized pool in memory of patriarch B.F. “Sandy” Coggan, who died in August 1999.

More than $5 million in private funds went toward the complex.

Franke said Coggan is technically a private pool. “The pool was offered to the school,” he said, “but the City of San Diego School District didn’t want to be liable for the cost of renting it.”

Instead, he said, the pool is owned and operated by the La Jolla Aquatic Complex Foundation.

“It’s a private pool run for the benefit of the community and the high school.”

Pool info:

• Summer pool hours: 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekdays; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends.
• School-year hours, starting Sept. 2: 6 a. m. to 1:30 p.m. and 4 to 7:30 p.m. weekdays.
• Cost: 6 and under, $3; 7-18, $5; adults, $8; seniors 65+, $5.Multiple-visit punch cards, monthly passes and annual memberships are also available.
• Call (858) 456-0945 or visitwww.cfaquatics.org.