For several years, swimmers from the Purcellville area have been forced into the same two facilities: Round Hill Aquatic Center and Ida Lee Recreation Center. At Round Hill, swimmers have to deal with limited space and shallow water depth. At Ida Lee, swimmers from several schools such as Tuscarora, Heritage, and Loudoun High Schools have to share the facility with other club teams, which can result in late night practices.
Scheduling practice time and striving towards fairness in these limited shared spaces poses challenges for swimmers with ambitious goals to improve and practice as much as possible. Despite the difficulties that come with shared aquatic space, swimmers have overcome these challenges for years because of their unchangeable love for the sport. Senior Zoë Roberts-Shaw described, “I love the community. It’s the most supportive sports culture that I have ever been a part of.”
In February of 2023, county supervisors bought land in Purcellville for around $6.9 million to build a new recreation and aquatic facility. The estimated timeline for the whole project is around five years from the land purchase date, with construction ending in 2028. Estimated to be 83,000 square feet with a park on 142.71 acres, this new facility will be just the thing that Purcellville swim teams need.
Woodgrove’s swim team has a total of 49 swimmers, which is a challenge to fit in the Round Hill Aquatic Center. Cassidy Carter, a freshman on Woodgrove’s swim team, shared, “People can hold you up in your lane, and I think the recreation center will fix that because there will be more space to pass people.”
For years, Woodgrove has been forced to have practice at Ida Lee from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m., which is strenuous and exhausting for the students and coaches. Tyler Brege, a senior swimmer at Woodgrove, shared, “It’s definitely hard to get up the next morning. I feel like we shouldn’t be practicing that late.” Swimmers and coaches alike have to stay up late for practice, resulting in mass exhaustion the following day. Woodgrove Swim Team Head Coach Ben Peliere shared, “Just like swimmers have to get up the next morning and go to school, I’ve got to get up and go to work; I always tell my coworkers on Wednesdays, ‘Don’t expect a whole lot from me, because I’m going to be tired.’ It’s not really enjoyable for anybody to be losing sleep with the Tuesday night practices.”
Swimmers hope that the facility will offer more lanes, deeper water, and more practice space, allowing them to meet their swimming goals. At the thought of a new facility, Brege shared, “I feel like it would be a more successful swim season. It would help us be able to practice flip turns easier and learn dives better for the newcomers who have never swam competitively before.”
Likewise, coaches feel the pressing need for more space. Peliere explains, “I think it [the new recreation center] would completely change the success of the team. Here [at Round Hill], we have to supplement and have kids outside of the water for parts of practice in order to make room, so it would be a huge advantage, and it would help everybody get better. ”
Construction of the center is set to begin in the summer of 2026, as told by the Western Loudoun Recreation Center website. As the recreation plans are being finalized and designed, everyone is hoping this center will provide spaciousness, so competitive swimmers can achieve what they set out to do.