Dive into Samo’s New Discovery Building Pool

Sydney Roker, Staff Writer

The opening of the new Discovery Building brought many upgrades to Samo’s campus, including a brand new Olympic-sized pool. The facilities are used by Samo’s water polo team and have led them to success by providing the team with the training space and equipment that they need to thrive.

Samo swim and water polo coach, Matthew Flanders (’89), has been able to experience both the new pool and the Drake pool. Although Flanders has fond memories of the Drake pool, he describes the new pool as light years better than the former training facility.

“Drake was a historic pool. I learned how to swim in it, I played water polo in it. It was a great environment to be in, but it was old,” Flanders said.

The 20-lane outdoor pool is ​​situated on the north side of the Discovery Building, and gives the Samo team, as well as outside aquatic programs, over double the amount of training space than they had in Drake’s eight-lane indoor facility. Flanders says that this ability to train everyone at the same time is one of the parts of the new pool that has been most beneficial to the team.

In addition to the added training space, the new pool came with upgraded technology including a moveable bulkhead, a structure that can separate the pool into sections, which makes it possible for multiple teams    to practice at the same time. The pool also has large locker and shower rooms, which multiple water polo team members have cited as being much improved from the previous Drake locker rooms, including Team Santa Monica (TSM) and Samo girls’ water polo team member Serena Wu (’23).

“I prefer the new pool as it’s less stuffy and the new locker rooms are much cleaner. The new pool also just looks a lot better as it doesn’t have any stains or broken tiles since it’s so new,” Wu said.

It is clear that the decision to replace the old and outdated Drake Pool with the new Discovery Building pool has come with an overwhelmingly positive response from students and staff alike and will be a welcome addition to campus for years to come.

Councilman-Hunsaker in collaboration with Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners designed the new Discovery pool. Since the opening of the new building in August 2021, Samo’s aquatic program and other local teams practice in the facilities daily.  

Kira Bretsky/ The Samohi