|Photo provided by Tony Wood| The first story entrance of the John Marshall Aquatic Center will be dedicated to JMHS students and use for athletes during competitions.

GLEN DALE – The northwest corner of the John Marshall High School student parking lot will be transformed over the next three years into a 60,000-square-foot natatorium with a competition-sized pool, warm-up pool and quarter-mile indoor walking track.

The John Marshall Aquatic Center will be built in collaboration between Marshall County Schools and WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital. More than 7,000 square feet of the $22 million facility will be designated for WVU Medicine Reynolds’ use.

The project began as the dream of the late former Marshall County Schools Superintendent Donald Haskins. When the high school was built in 1968, Haskins was given a choice between a pool and an auditorium. Haskins chose an auditorium but kept the vision of a swimming pool on the JMHS campus.

Marshall County Board of Education President John Miller said Haskins’ goal to be the first to jump in the swimming pool at JMHS would not be fulfilled since he passed away last year. However, his wife, Jo Anne Haskins, and son, Michael Haskins, were able to attend Tuesday’s announcement of the new aquatic center in his memory.

The first step to achieving Haskins’ dream was the approval of the project in the operation levy that ran in March 2017. The current BOE voted in 2023 to put $15 million into a fund that can only be used for the project to ensure completion.

Haskins’ dream of a swimming pool at the high school will be more than fulfilled with the proposed two-story natatorium, which will include two classrooms, a multipurpose room and a concession stand.

Omni Architectural and Engineer Services will design the facility, with design and operational consulting from the firm’s aquatics specialist, Counsilman-Hunsaker Aquatics for Life. Principal/Project Architect Adam Rohaly said the competition pool will be an eight-lane, 25-meter pool with movable bulkheads to accommodate short-course and long-course events.

The competition pool will share a filtration system with the warm-up pool, which Rohaly said will “probably” contain three to four lanes. Rohaly added the facility’s track will “wrap around” the facility and overlook the multipurpose space.

The two-story building will contain an entrance dedicated to JMHS students and competition use at the student parking lot level. A second-story entrance facing Wheeling Avenue will cater to WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial patients.

Marshall County Schools Facilities Director Michael Price said WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital patients will utilize the warm-up pool for physical therapy. Cardiovascular patients will also use the indoor track for activities.

Dr. Jamie Evick, WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital Medical Director, said the facility will provide patients with “better access” to primary care in addition to physical therapy, dietitians, diabetic education and cardiac rehabilitation.

Evick said the details regarding how appointments would be conducted between the main WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital and the John Marshall Aquatic Center will be “worked out in the future.”

With a daughter on the swim team and her husband, Anthony Evick, the JMHS assistant swim coach, Jamie Evick said the announcement of the aquatic center was exciting for her “professionally and personally.” Anthony Evick and JMHS head swim coach Timmi Snyder shared Jamie Evick’s excitement for the facility.

The JMHS swim team currently trains at the Four Seasons pool. Snyder noted the “extreme inconvenience” of traveling from the school to practice and the difficulty of scheduling practice time at the public facility. She added that the city was “very accommodating” in letting the team use the facility but was “relieved” by the announcement of the new natatorium.

Apart from the convenience the new natatorium would bring, Snyder noted the new facility would be large enough to accommodate the more than 30 swimmers on the team. She added that the athletes would also have a “competitive advantage” by being able to practice in the pool they will “actually race and compete in.”

In addition to JMHS swimmers taking advantage of the facility, other JMHS athletes will be able to use the multi-purpose room. Price said they plan to have golf simulators for the golf team to practice with, archery facilities, baseball and softball batting cages and a tumbling/cheer area for gymnastics practices. The JMHS weight room will also be moved from the high school to the facility.

The natatorium may also cater to more than JMHS athletes. Marshall County Schools Superintendent Shelby Haines said the BOE has been “very clear” from the project’s onset that they desire the pool to be large enough to hold regional events. Snyder added that the location may be the new West Virginia Region 1 Swim Championship meet site.

“I’ve already talked to the athletic director at Brooke High School, and he’s told me, ‘We’re waiting to give you this event,'” Snyder said. “Brooke does a great job of hosting these regional events, but they’re limited on their flood space, which makes it difficult for swimmers to be involved in the meets. Hopefully, based on the designs for the new natatorium, we’re going to have the ability to have all the teams in the pool area so they can support their teammates in the pool.”

Residents will also be able to use the facility, with Price saying the pool and walking track will have scheduled times open for the community to use. He noted the project was still in the “mechanical, engineering and plumbing phase,” meaning the details regarding the facility’s availability to the public were not yet solidified.

“First things first, we want to get the facility designed and then move on to construction,” Price said. “We want Marshall County taxpayers to be able to utilize the full facility too, so there’s much to do regarding scheduling and utilization so far.”

Bids for the John Marshall Aquatic Center will be published in May 2025, and the groundbreaking will be in the summer of 2025. The projected opening date is August 2027.