After a delay of almost a year and a half, the Boerne ISD Aquatics Learning Center is finally finished and ready for use.
Both Boerne ISD head swim/ water polo coaches basically said the same thing – they’re glad the wait is over.
“This has been a long time coming,” Boerne High aquatics coach Brandon Cheves said.
Chargers aquatics coach Scott Slay echoed the same sentiments, almost word for word.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Slay said at Monday’s ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the pool.
The Greyhounds and Chargers swim teams are in the middle of their 2025-26 seasons and used the pool Tuesday morning, the very next day.
Previously, all BISD aquatic teams practiced at the city of Boerne pool and while BISD has a great working relationship with the city, both head coaches are glad to have a place of their own.
“If you think about it, we were crammed into six lanes (at the city pool) and our programs continue to grow, whether it’s water polo or swimming,” Cheves said. “Now we can have plenty of space for all the kids to get their practices in.”
The new facility has 11 lanes and is 25-yards long from north to south. That distance is standard for high school meets, but if they swim cross ways or east to west, it converts to 25 meters, which is suitable for college meets.
The facility also has a one-meter diving board, along with spectator seating and locker rooms.
Slay said the bottom line is they have more room, and it also adds a new training dimension for water polo.
“We have 11 lanes to swim in which means we can space kids out. There were lanes at the city pool where we had 10 kids in one lane and now, honestly, we can give them more attention,” he said. “For water polo, we had a six-lane shallow-deep pool and now we can have eight lanes of all deep water and have an opportunity to put four to six goals in the water and include all of the kids and develop them more.”
Several people spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony, including Charger swimmers Kate Canales and Will Harrison, both state champions in various events.
Slay said that this will help the up-and-coming swimmers in the community and help turn them into swimmers like Canales and Harrison.
“The long-term goal of this pool is to have kids ready to grow into our program and for them to use this pool growing up,” he said.
After the bond passed in 2022 to build the facility, construction began in the summer of 2023, with an estimated completion date of August 2024. After several delays, the district switched contractors and went with Boernebased Waterman Construction, which completed the project.
Cheves said it was hard to deal with a delay of almost a year and a half.
“I live not far from (the pool), and I drove by it every day and it was super frustrating to see that no one was working on it at times. Thank goodness Waterman Construction took that on,” he said. “Not many companies would take over a project midway through and finish it out. They are invested in the community, and we love that. That’s what we’re all about.”
Slay’s life has centered around aquatic sports, both as an athlete and a coach, and he said he’s glad the new facility is outdoors and not indoors.
“I prefer outdoors; I spent my life around indoor pools and once I got to Boerne and we were outdoors, I’ll never go back,” he said. “Even on the coldest days I like being outside. I breathe better and I don’t get sick all the time from being around an indoor pool.”
Slay added that maintenance is easier on an outdoor pool anyway.
“The indoor pool is more work, as far as the HVAC systems go. Here that maintenance is taken off the table and with indoor pools it’s wet and damp and your equipment has a tendency to rust out more,” Slay said. “With outdoor pools, it’s just upkeep of the pool itself with leaves and things like that.”
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