After being closed for nearly two years, Eastern Michigan University’s Jones Natatorium has reopened. The facility, which features an Olympic size 50m pool, as well a full diving setup with both springboards and a platform tower has been out of commission since late June of 2021, when a heavy rainstorm damaged the roof on the building and flooded the pool. 22 months later, Jones has passed its inspection and is back in action.
The natatorium, which is home the Eastern Michigan Eagles women’s swimming and diving team, is also one of the home sites for both Club Wolverine, a USA Swimming club, as well as Legacy Diving, a dive club that competes in both AAU and USA Diving. Notably, Buck Smith, who just completed his 23rd season as the head diving coach at EMU, is the owner and head coach of Legacy Diving.
The facility originally opened in 1982. The pool is named after legendary EMU swim coach Michael H. Jones who coached the men’s team from 1956 until he retired in 1988. Featuring a ten lane, 50-meter competition pool, Jones Natatorium has been a popular host for everything from college meets, to high school championship meets, to club state championship meets.
EMU eliminated its men’s swimming and diving program in the spring of 2018 but kept the women’s program intact. The elimination of the men’s program was made as part of a massive cut by the university, which also saw men’s wrestling, women’s softball, and women’s tennis get the axe. The move came as a shock to many in the swimming community, as the EMU men’s swimming and diving team was perpetually one of the top-performing mid major programs in the NCAA under longtime head coach Peter Linn. The winningest coach in EMU history, Linn then retired after the following season (2018-2019), ending a 31-year run as the head coach of the program.
Following Linn’s retirement, Derek Perkins, who had spent eight seasons coaching at the University of Kentucky, was named the head coach of the EMU women’s team, a role which he’s still in. At the 2023 Women’s MAC Championships in February, the Eagles finished sixth out of eight teams.
Banners came down as part of roof repairs. Pictures were slated to be moved to the Mezzanine level before COVID and all the construction. The pool is open, but still has cosmetic work to go
They should all be put back up. Plain and simple.
It’s time to reconsider reinstating the men’s program. Such a dominant program and one of the best mid major programs in D1 before it was cut. They also need to honor the previous men’s teams by hanging their conference title banners back up in that pool. 34 conference titles.
They took down the men’s team banners? That is quite disrespectful given that those teams trained in that pool and won championships in that pool. For reference, Ohio University cut their men’s team in 2007 but I believe they still have banners for their men’s team (anyone feel free to correct me if that’s wrong).
Yes, championship banners taken down and men’s MAC Championship team pictures have also been taken down. Quite disrespectful to the legacy of Mike Jones and Peter Linn
The EMU athletic administration doesn’t give two rips about swimming. It’s one of the worst run administrations in the country. Hell, HBO did an episode on HBO sports about how shady they were a few years back.
It’s a travesty to see what’s happened at EMU in regard to swimming. Deplorable really.
6th of 8?!! This team used to be a powerhouse a few years ago, what happened??? Also noticed that almost half their roster did not preform at conference, most notably their lead distance swimmer Savanna Mouat who’s scored so many points for them in the past??? What’s going on with this team????
Based off collegeswimming it looks like there was a steep decline during/after pandemic, I’m sure this situation didn’t help
I take it back, actually dug a little deeper and you’re right, some slow swimming this year and not to mention they only had 17 girls swim this year? averaged about 17-20 since this guy took over when they used to have 28 in years prior
Program is a complete joke now! I know there’s minimal support from the administration, but it really shows how great of a job Coach Linn did.
Nailed it. The administration was such a joke coach Linn couldn’t take it anymore. Now look where they are.
Did some digging and talked to some parents of the current team and found that there’s been bullying happening in the team BOTH swimmer and staff that’s escalated since this new coach took over. 3 girls were bullied off the team before conference. Disgusting and unbelievable!!! P Linn wouldn’t put up with this!!
I’m sure there’s many reasons for the decline in the program. However, the fish rots from the head!
Ventilation system the worst of any pool in country!
Gutter flow and hvac upgraded. Roof fixes will alleviate the severity of the heat/steam issues once turned on (assuming HVAC is operating at an appropriate capacity).
Air should get better, as long as the university decides to turn HVAC on and run it at more than 20% capacity. The university number crunchers don’t like it since that costs money.
But yes, air can be bad when you have 900+ swimmers in a State meet with no breaks for the air to recoup, and none of those swimmers rinse off
Roof was already damaged. They actually had a gutter on inside of building to catch water from leaks since 2012. Flood was the pump room and the filter system was ancient. They had just opened a redo of the adjacent student rec center which is first class. Hopefully the pool are got a paint job and deep clean. It is a fabulous tank.
It did, partially
So many club teams in Michigan do not have access to 50m pools, it’s pathetic.
where did the women’s team practice/compete in the time the pool was closed?
Practice = Club Pool
Meets = Saline HS or UofM
Also senior night this year was at skyline HS
Oof that club pool is rough.
It’s been more like 5 years if you take into consideration the COVID pandemic. They opened for about 2 weeks and then the floods happened. They closed March 17, 2020 when the state of Michigan had the lockdowns.
It’s been 3 years since March 2020, not 5.
Was also open for more than 2 weeks. It was open January-June
They hosted the Women’s MAC Championship in April 2021