Pool still in future

Originally due to be ready in November, the pool at Estancia High remains out of commission as the spring sports schedule opens, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Contractors started pouring concrete for the swimming pool’s deck on Feb. 15.

“I’m being told four to six weeks now,” Estancia girls’ water polo and swim Coach Bob Bandaruk said, which won’t do his team any good, but could give the Estancia swim teams hope.

The facility’s closure has already forced the displacement of the Eagles’ boys’ and girls’ water polo teams.

Estancia’s home swim meet dates for the first half of the season have been changed to the second half of the season in hopes of having a campus pool to compete in.

Estancia High Principal Thomas Antal, said the school’s swim teams could be practicing and competing in their own, newly refurbished pool by April, or possible before then, in time for the heart of the season.

“We’re hopeful,” Antal said.

Until then, Estancia will compete in meets exclusively on the road and will practice at Orange Coast College in March after practicing at Costa Mesa this week.

Antal said there was a miscommunication about how much it would cost the district for Estancia to practice at OCC, which briefly had the team in the dark regarding where they would practice in March.

He said $16,000 was quoted as a price for use of the OCC pool, “but that was predicated on 2 1/2 months use, and we don’t need it for that long.”

Under the current agreement, Estancia swim teams will practice at OCC for 20 days throughout March, or every day the team doesn’t have a swim meet on the road. Although a final figure hasn’t been named yet, Antal said he expects practice time at OCC to cost the district between $2,500 and $5,000.

Renovation on the pool turned out to be more complicated and expensive than first estimated, officials said, causing a significant delay.

Bandaruk said he was told the pool would be ready for his team’s use by the end of January, which would have allowed the Eagles to host key Golden West League games on campus, but the finish date was pushed back once again. The Estancia girls’ varsity water polo team, despite having to play many of its games at Costa Mesa High, made the CIF Southern Section Division VI playoffs for the first time in the school’s history.

Bandaruk said there were extensive drainage and lighting problems with Estancia’s pool, causing delays.

Antal added that the entire deck was taken up and replaced with a new plaster surface and the deep end of the bottom of the pool had to be raised.

“Instead of just making a few repairs, it turned into basically rebuilding a whole new pool,” Antal said.

Bandaruk said he was originally told the pool would be ready for his team’s use by the end of January, which would have allowed the Eagles to host key Golden West League games on campus, but the finish date was pushed back once again. In spite of the difficulties, the Estancia girls’ varsity water polo team made the CIF Southern Section Division VI playoffs for the first time in the school’s history before losing its first-round game to Corona Centennial, 20-3, on Feb. 16.