CTS Completes Major Implementation at High School Natatorium

If ever a school swimming facility needed a facelift, it was Grosse Pointe South High School. The school had a four-lane, 20-yard pool that was built in the 1920s and was connected to the school's boiler system — so when the building's heat was on, the pool was too warm; and when the heat was off, the pool was freezing. The pool was so small, outdated and difficult to clean that the school's swim team avoided using it and instead used a local middle school's pool for practice and the district's other high school for meets.

Grosse Pointe South needed a change — and they got it with help from Colorado Time Systems. In September, the school proudly opened its new natatorium, which features a state-of-the-art, 12-lane, 25-yard pool with a full 12-lane Colorado Timing System, a 17' color matrix scoreboard, customized Colorado Blocks by Paragon Aquatics, and much more.

A Unique Challenge

Eric Gunderson, the boys swim coach at Grosse Pointe South, has been involved in the project from its outset and describes the unusual constraints and limitations the school faced.

"We were building on top of an existing one-story underground building," Gunderson explains. "We built two levels on top of that building, and since we had to build on an existing footprint, there wasn't any question of the size we could make the pool area! We had to configure the walls and the layout of the pool in the best way for our needs."

Another unusual challenge was choosing a scoreboard that could be seen by audience members sitting in the bleachers on the opposite side of the 12-lane pool. CTS installed a custom 17-foot-wide color matrix that can display 12 lanes of race times and splits in different colors, along with swimmers' names and event-specific information — all without sacrificing readability. The board can also display video from underwater cameras during practices or meets. They also have a 40 second pump-up video that they play after the national anthem at the start of every meet.

Choosing CTS

Once approved for a new facility, the Grosse Pointe South staff began to ask questions when they went to meets at other pools, querying coaches and team members about what they liked best about their pool and what they would change if they could.

"We tried to learn from others' experiences so we could make our pool the most functional for our needs," Gunderson admits.

Gunderson also researched other timing systems manufacturers as well as CTS, then contacted CTS by using a contact form on the CTS Web site.

"The CTS sales consultant gave me a call," says Gunderson, "and we talked for quite a while about our project. He talked to our girls swim coach as well, gave us some guidelines and laid out different options for us. We put together a plan and selected the best equipment configuration for our project and budget. What we ended up getting was more than we expected. CTS really worked with us to get us a customized system for our pool within our approved budget."

Gunderson had experience working with CTS products, as well as competing products, from his work with summer swim meets at other facilities.

"Using other systems, and then using the CTS equipment, reaffirmed that CTS was the one to go with," Gunderson recalls. "By the time we made our final decision on CTS, my experiences with various different systems were helpful in making that decision."

In all, the Grosse Pointe South installation consisted of:

• Custom Size Full Color Olympex 23mm Video Display (128 x 224 pixels / 10'x17')
• A full 12-lane timing system including CTS wallplates and QuickConnect Deckplates
• A System 6 Timer with software for Swimming, Diving, Pace Clock, Water Polo, and Synchronized Swimming.
• Wireless Championship Start System with 1 wireless mic, 2 wired mics, and wall mounted strobes and horns, and an underwater recall speaker
• 12 Colorado Blocks with lane speakers mounted underneath
• Custom Sized 84' Aquagrip Touchpads and Caddy
• 12 RJP's with speedlights and Caddy
• 8 Judging Consoles for Diving
• 4 Wireless Pace Clock Pros with Amber LEDs, offering 16 training modes
• QuickStart Pro training module
• Dolphin Wireless Stopwatch System with 25 Watches

New Equipment Improves Training

Although the facility has only been open for about a month, Gunderson notes that the new CTS system has improved his team's training in several ways:

1. RJPs deliver reaction times for 12 starts at once — so they're a great training tool for flat-start reactions as well as relay exchanges.
2. The four wireless Pace Clock Pros can be used for start reactions, breakout times, turn speeds, mid-race timing and other training modes.
3. The underwater recall speaker is useful for providing feedback to athletes during practice.
4. Also, "It's great to be able to program 12 separate workouts and display them on the board simultaneously," Gunderson enthuses.
5. With more lanes and more timing equipment, swim practice takes about half as long as when the team had to use the five-lane the middle school pool. "We can be out at 6 p.m. and everybody gets to swim together! We used to split the swim team into two groups, and the divers practiced at a completely different pool," says Gunderson.

Having worked with CTS during the previous few years, Gunderson feels comfortable calling CTS to discuss different training ideas and ways to use the equipment — but "there are still tons of possibilities we haven't even explored to their full potential," he says, and his excitement is obvious.

The CTS Difference

"CTS is always trying to create a better experience for the coaches, swimmers and fans," says Gunderson. "The big difference between CTS and other manufacturers is that CTS is a swimming company that makes scoreboards too, versus a scoreboard company that happens to make timing equipment. CTS is focused on the coaches, the swimmers and improving both the meets and the training — all around, they're out there to improve the sport of swimming."

"The Colorado Timing and Display System has tremendously helped our school to offer the most state of the art pool facility," adds Brandon Slone, Grosse Pointe South's assistant principal and athletic director. "CTS has been more than accommodating with all of our requests and it is evident that they strive for excellence with all of their products. I would highly recommend CTS to any other athletic director across the country without hesitation."