Central Valley High School’s swim program should experience a major boost in participation numbers this academic year thanks in large part to a new addition on campus.

Ceres Unified School District’s second public high school is slated to open its state-of-the-art $5.5-million Aquatics Center next month.

“It’s finally come to fruition for the kids and the community,” said Ken Hines, director of Maintenance, Facilities and Transportation for CUSD. “I think it’s great. Its placement was part of the original design of the campus.”

Central Valley athletic director Greg Magni said the pool is “a win for everybody. Now, we have two swimming pools in the area. That’s a great thing. We expect our numbers to grow.”

CUSD broke ground last December on the much-anticipated Aquatics Center, which is located by the gym and tennis courts near the entrance of the student parking lot. FF&J Architects of Turlock and Aquatics Design of Carlsbad designed the pool.

Modesto contractor Acme Construction recently finished tile work and installed touch pads in the pool.

“Some of the pool deck has been installed,” said Hines. “They’re supposed to pour some more this week. We have a meeting on Wednesday.”

The Aquatics Center was supposed to open in May but the completion date changed due rainy weather and supply issues.

“They have the scoreboard but it’s not up yet,” Hines note. “The piping and electrical is in.”

The facility will include a pool with 11 lanes, and a timing system/scoreboard courtesy of Colorado Time System. Each lane will be 25 yards long and depth of the pool ranges from 3 feet 6 inches to 7 feet 3 inches. The pool will hold 376,581 gallons of water.

“It’s comparable to other schools,” Hines said. “It meets all league requirements as far as the length of the lanes, the color of the tile in the pool and it has touch pads in the pool.”

Central Valley swimmers will no longer use Ceres High’s pool for its practices and home matches.

“We’re hopeful with the addition of our new facility, we’ll be able to entice more kids to join that program,” Magni said.

Central Valley will be fielding its first-ever boys and girls water polo teams this fall. Cristina Rocha (boys) and Kayla Himmist (girls) have been named head coaches.

“It’s a new opportunity for the kids,” commented Magni. “It’s pretty awesome.”

The start date for water polo is Aug. 18.

“We’re not going to play league games because we don’t know if our pool will be completed in time,” said Magni. “If the pool isn’t ready, we’re still going to field teams and practice on land until it’s completed. I’ll be scheduling scrimmages for our kids.”

“The contractor is telling me it’s going to be done by August,” Hines added. “I’m very optimistic.”

The new swimming pool will also be utilized by the city of Ceres Recreation Department.

“I’m sure the city will use the pool to teach kids to swim and for water aerobics,” said Hines. “They have different programs.”