By the beginning of this school year, a new campus pool was finished and ready for use.

Officially named the Brophy Aquatic Center, it replaces Loyola field just outside the Great Hall.

Now the teams will not have to drive to the former sports campus near 28th Street and Campbell Avenue to have practices and meets.

“It’s adding a lot of excitement to the season,” said head swimming coach Mr. Patrick O’Neill.

Mr. O’Neill also said that the new pool being on campus should bring a lot more excitement and fan participation to the swim team.

“I am hoping we get a lot more students to come out and watch our meets because it is on campus and it is going to be a lot easier access than driving five miles away,” Mr. O’Neill said.

Junior Kyle McCoy ’16, a member of the swim team, said that the new pool makes practices a lot more simple and should bring more attention to the swim team.

Senior swimmer Calvin Higgins ’15 also said he thinks the new pool will be of great use to the swim team.

“I think the new pool is going to be great for us because it gives us our own home turf.  It pumps us up before meets because we get to swim in this really nice new facility,” Higgins said.

Both Mr. O’Neill and Higgins said that it is a very fast pool and the swimmers are getting great recorded times from it.

“We are going to do a lot more advertisement for the swim meets so people know about them,” Higgins said.

Higgins said that the new pool is definitely worth it and it should make for another successful season.

The new pool will not only be used for Brophy and Xavier aquatic teams, but it will also be used for freshmen swimming tests, which is a new requirement for incoming students, and will periodically be used for open swim days Monday through Thursday.

This article was originally published by Brophy's The Roundup student newspaper.