The Ohio State Swim Club (OSSC) announced in July that it was suspending operations indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now six months later, the club has effectively shut down with no return in sight. The Ohio State Swim Club is a USA Swimming club team that previously trained out of Ohio State’s aquatics facilities and was owned by Ohio State’s department of Rec Sports.
On Jan. 14, the Buckeye Aquatic Academy, which encompasses both the swim club and the Ohio State Diving Club, sent out a letter to its members telling them that the program would no longer be offered as part of the Ohio State Student Life departmental programming.
In other words, the announcement says that the clubs will no longer be affiliated with Ohio State University, and therefore, shut down.
The letter outlines the decision made to suspend operations in the summer, citing the need to “de-densify campus and dramatically change operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The clubs train out of the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion, located on the Ohio State campus. Local parents claim that the cost of running the facility’s pool is a fixed cost, and therefore are having difficulty understanding the full scope of the decision.
“At this time there is no timeline or pathway to returning the BAA swim and dive teams to their full program levels, nor is there a timetable for hosting youth events on campus,” the letter continues. “As a revenue-based program, unable to generate income since late spring, the impact has become unsurmountable.
“We did not arrive at this conclusion easily and we appreciate and will miss all of you who participated in and supported this program over the years.”
Full Letter:
Dear Buckeye Aquatic Academy Families,
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to make a very difficult decision regarding the Buckeye Aquatic Academy. As of January 2021, the academy will no longer be offered as part of our Ohio State Student Life departmental programming.
You will recall that in July, the difficult yet necessary decision was made to suspend the 2020-2021 season of the Swim and Dive Club programs in the BAA given the need to de-densify campus and dramatically change operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At this time there is no timeline or pathway to returning the BAA swim and dive teams to their full program levels, nor is there a timetable for hosting youth events on campus. As a revenue-based program, unable to generate income since late spring, the impact has become unsurmountable.
We did not arrive at this conclusion easily and we appreciate and will miss all of you who participated in and supported this program over the years.
Thank you for your compassion for the affected staff and support during this challenging time.
Heard from a source that the real reason is the administration didn’t see where the Buckeye Aquatic Academy fit into the university so that is why they were not brought back. It had nothing to do with money because they had several proposals on the table to help sustain the clubs and still fund themselves, but all were ignored.
It’s happening all over the country. USA clubs are losing access to pools. Parents aren’t going to pay for swim clubs that aren’t swimming. Clubs can’t pay coaches with no revenue. Multiple clubs are folding in our area. It’s a sad time for swimming.
Grew up on this team. Great team. Great Leadership. Forged a huge supply of D1 collegiate swimmers and future leaders in life. sad it has to go like this because it was truly one of the best programs out there. Ohio swimming will feel their absence, No doubt.
OSSC was so dominant, and on the bright side there are a lot of pools and teams in the Columbus area. It stinks for the divers though, because I’m not sure there is a facility nearly as nice as McCorkle to train at.
Club Wolverine had just begun regular practices at Canham on Jan. 18 to the 21st when they told them they couldn’t swim on Friday due to a deep cleaning needed after a UM meet vs. MSU. And then the next day the althetic department put a 2 week hold on all athletics. Its been a struggle but our coaches have found a way to keep the kids in the water at least for a little bit each week. All about the grind and process.
Details on this comment are inaccurate.
The details of this comment are inaccurate.
Am I missing something here? Isn’t this an article talking about a club team being closed down? Except the fact that they train at Ohio State, I’m missing the discussion around college sports.
pretty sure swimswam covers HS, club, and youth in addition to college….
I’m pretty sure this article is about the college club team. Swimswam covers college club swimming a bit especially the big meets, and Ohio State had one of the best club teams in the nation taking second place at nationals two years ago (which they hosted). As a college club swimmer, this is really sad to see and makes me feel fortunate that our club was able to get pool space even if it’s mainly in the crappy rec pool.
No, this is about the USA Swimming club that trains out of Ohio State.
I’m sure Ohio State will be “de-densifying” campus during their home football games in the fall…
And when they host big tens
There have been more soccer teams dropped since the pandemic started than swimming & diving teams.
There have been more volleyball teams dropped since the pandemic started than swimming & diving teams.
If you add softballl and baseball together (due to the fact that “swimming & diving” includes male and female), more have been dropped than swimming & diving teams.
And finally: More basketball teams have been dropped than swimming & diving teams.
It would be interesting to know the total numbers and distributions of the teams so we can examine the relative proportions. Are there many more D3 baseball teams than swim teams?
While there are benefits to soccer and volleyball, an aerobic-based sport like swimming offers far more physiologic health benefits.
My point was “people can swimmer longer than all of these sports, but all of these sports have been cut in higher quantities than swimming.”
I get your point, but soccer is aerobic
Braden, are you referring to college programs being dropped or club/rec programs? I am just curious to know which level you are referring to, or is it in generally across all levels?
College programs across all levels.
Braden, how many USA club teams have shut down? Do we have a count? Our club team has struggled as our revenue is largely generated off learn to swim and age groupers. Our access to water has been significantly diminished due to HS pools not allowing outside organizations to use water as in the past. This would be a metric that would be good to investigate. My bet is our club team isn’t an anomaly and a number are struggling to keep access to water and stay financially solvent.
We don’t, and probably won’t have a good county until USA Swimming releases their next membership demographics report later this year.
So far, a lot of the teams we’ve heard about have been ‘pushed out of their pools’ more than they’ve straight-up ceased to operate, so their status is a little fuzzy.
In many cases, the coaches of these teams don’t want to talk about it either, which makes it pretty hard to figure out what’s really going on.
Interesting.