As Spieker Aquatics Complex celebrates its 30th birthday, we pay tribute to the , diving and water polo success that it has produced. We also look to the future, to create conditions for world-class excellence in all four sports at the NCAA and Olympic level. An important part of this excellence is a new pool: Our teams need more water, and we have embarked on a campaign to build a new aquatic center at Cal.

A TRADITION OF AQUATICS EXCELLENCE

Cal Aquatics stands out as a storied program in the distinguished history of Cal Athletics. All four aquatic teams — men’s swimming and diving, women’s swimming and diving, men’s water polo, and women’s water polo — are nationally recognized and beloved by the campus community.

Cal swimmers and water polo players routinely achieve NCAA and Olympic fame. The list of Cal greats includes , Mary T. Meagher, , , , , and Heather Petri.

At the 2012 in London, nine Blue and Gold swimmers and water polo players brought home at least one medal.

Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams won NCAA national titles last year — the second consecutive national championship for both squads and the women’s third NCAA championship in four years. Men’s water polo has won 13 national titles. While the women’s squad was only established as an NCAA varsity sport in 1996, it has been regularly ranked in the Top 5 nationally in recent years.

The program’s student-athletes aspire to greatness in the classroom as well as the pool. They are recipients of numerous all-academic team honors and the women’s water polo team recently earned a combined GPA of 3.37, the second highest on campus.

Cal Aquatics is also acclaimed for coaching icons such as the late Pete Cutino, hailed as the grandfather of water polo, and , men’s head swimming coach emeritus. Today’s coaching staff carries on this luminous torch. Teri McKeever, a 21- year veteran women’s swimming coach at Cal, served as head coach of the U.S. women’s team at the 2012 Olympics and is regarded as one of the finest swimming mentors in the sport today. An influential innovator, she routinely guides athletes to new records and the championship podium.

Extending this extraordinary legacy, Cal’s most recent recruiting class includes swimmer , a five-time

Olympic medalist in London and perhaps the most decorated recruit ever to enter the collegiate ranks.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE FOR MORE WATER

For the past 30 years, Spieker Aquatics Complex has been the proven training ground for Cal champions as well as a high- profile venue for competition, and is also home to avid recreational and community users.

UC Berkeley is one of only three NCAA programs in the country that provides participation opportunities to athletes in all four aquatics sports. Nearly 120 student-athletes currently compete in these programs at Cal. Despite the overwhelming success of these programs, they are constrained by a lack of capacity for both training and competition, both in terms of times available for practice and amount of water space.

In addition to serving as the home pool for four NCAA Division 1 squads vying for yearly national titles, the Spieker pool is used by hundreds of recreational swimmers, community and campus master’s swimmers, physical education students, and a number of top post-graduates, such as Natalie Coughlin and Nathan Adrian, training with their longtime Cal coaches.

The aquatics programs are further hampered by inadequate and obsolete land-side training facilities. The shortage of water space is a significant issue campus-wide for IA and other users, including recreational swimmers, physical education students, and community partners; realization of this project would free up water space for all of these users. This project is intended to address this significant deficit of water space on the campus not only for Intercollegiate Athletics, but for the campus community as a whole. The additional water will allow enhanced programs and services to be developed to help meet the aquatics needs in the Berkeley community.

As one measure of the significant task facing Berkeley to meet these competing demands with a single competition-level pool, Stanford relies upon four pools for its aquatics program. In fact, Stanford’s highly regarded Avery Aquatic Center boasts a 37-meter competition pool, two 50-meter training pools, and a diving center. The time has come for a new, state- of-the-art aquatic facility to match the caliber of Cal’s program.

Scheduling challenges at the Spieker pool have led to reduced availability for teams, shared and inconvenient practice schedules, and diminished course offerings for student-athletes. The absence of a diving tower means that Cal’s competitive divers must travel across the bay for weekly practices at Stanford.

The fact that Cal Aquatics squads and so many individual participants continue to excel speaks to the phenomenal talent and determination of our student-athletes and coaching staff. On the recruiting front, the promise of a Berkeley education frequently tips the scales in favor of Cal when top high school athletes weigh multiple college choices.

In order to uphold the quality of Cal Aquatics, UC Berkeley and some of its most loyal friends have joined forces to raise funds for a new aquatic training center. Four Cal families have come forward to establish a new nonprofit independent

entity, Cal Aquatic Legends (CAL), which will privately build the facility on land granted by the campus.

UC BERKELEY’S NEW AQUATIC CENTER

A springboard to the future, Cal’s new aquatic center builds on Cal Aquatics’ world-class tradition of swimming legends, water polo greats, and Olympic-caliber coaching.

This state-of-the-art training facility promises to help current and future generations of student-athletes reach new standards of performance in the pool and in their studies. The center will fulfill the high-level training demands of some 120 athletes competing on our men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and water polo teams. With improved practice schedules, student-athletes will reap the benefits of expanded study time and course offerings.

Flanked by Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue just west of the Tang Center, the center will be ideally situated just steps from the Spieker Aquatics Complex, other Cal Athletics facilities, and the Berkeley campus itself.

The centerpiece is a sparkling, 52-meter by 25-yard pool, complete with a moving bulkhead and the campus’s first diving tower. Encircling the pool, low-profile buildings will house men’s and women’s locker rooms, along with the welcome addition of a team meeting and multipurpose room. Though primarily intended for training, the center features a spacious deck accommodating 500 spectators on moveable bleachers for those occasions when competitions are hosted. Internationally known alumni athletes will also take advantage of the facility’s amenities as they continue training and conditioning with Cal coaching staff.

The center’s entry, just opposite of the majestic columns of Edwards Stadium, provides an inviting gateway. Prominently set on the southwest corner of campus near downtown Berkeley’s arts and commerce district, this preeminent training site will have year-round visibility to the greater Berkeley community and its many domestic and international visitors. The facility, up-to-the-moment features, and coveted location will prove a boon to student-athletes, coaches, training staff, and the campus as a whole. Simply put, the new center will sustain — and elevate — the excellence that is Cal Aquatics. UC Berkeley eagerly anticipates this vital addition to the campus landscape.

UC Berkeley – Intercollegiate Athletics – February 2013