Wooster Square Swims Into Summer

William McLaurin worried he wouldn’t have time to work on his freestyle stroke during the summer. Thanks to Conte West’s second summer as a public pool, now he will.

McLaurin, 10, is a student at Conte West Hills Magnet School. In the last two years, he’s learned to swim as part of Conte West’s physical education curriculum. (It is one of two elementary schools in the city to teach swimming; the other is John S. Martinez School in Fair Haven.) Now, he’s one of hundreds of New Haven kids and adults using the pool as a public resource during the summer months.

While this marks the second summer that the pool has been open after many seasons closed off the public, parks director Rebecca Bombero said that it’s the first to have really drawn a crowd. After two trial dates in April and May, the pool reopened to the public in late June, and is hosting open swims through Aug. 12.

Hours are Monday through Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The other locations for open swims are Hillhouse High School, Wilbur Cross High School, Hill Regional Career High School and John Martinez School. More information is available on the Parks, Recreation and Trees Department website.

“The city of New Haven is fortunate to have a number of public pools throughout the city to help keep New Haveners active,” said Bombero. She added that representatives from the department encourage students to sign up for swimming lessons that are offered at the schools from October through April, and that summer swim offers a continuation of that aquatic education. 

For McLaurin, the chance to continue swimming through the summer months means improving his skills, so he can dive into next year’s swimming curriculum prepared. On Wednesday night, he arrived with his sisters to work on freestyle, backstroke, and lung capacity, which he said he wants to perfect before swimming from one side of the deep end to the other. Clad in goggles and swim trunks, he shed his shoes and made his way over to seasoned lifeguard Luis Nunez, who is on his fifth year of lifeguarding and teaching for the department. 

A New Haven native, Nunez said that he grew up loving the water and wants to teach the city’s kids that it can be a safe and welcoming place to be. That hasn’t always historically been the case for people in New Haven. Easing onto the pool’s ledge with McLaurin, Nunez went through the fundamentals of a strong freestyle. A streamlined start, with one’s arms joined and pointed forward in a sharp triangle. Long, powerful strokes with arms that arc and bend, cutting through the water with a sharp motion. And a strong kick, with or without bent knees.

Nunez and McLaurin hopped into the water, grabbing a faded foam kickboard from the edge. ​“Kick kick kick kick kick!” Nunez urged.

McLaurin kicked his legs, churning up a spray of water in his wake. At the edge of the pool, his sister Denay looked on. Just a few minutes before, Nunez had worked with her and sisters Dayja and Dayonna Wilkins to work on their kicking and bubble-blowing skills in the shallowest end of the pool, where the water is three feet deep (it’s 5 feet, 10 inches deep at its deepest). 

When McLaurin had the kick down, he turned toward another area — swimming in the deep end, something he’s been working to perfect. Nunez got out, and watched him from the side, giving his tips on breathing, freestyle, and backstroke as he headed toward that end of the pool. He also worked on another move not included in his swimming courses, the cannonball, sending up water onto the already-soaked tile sides of the pool. Swimming back to the side, he looked briefly at an epic water-basketball game unfolding in the shallow end. 

“Yo, how you float?” cut in William’s 14-year-old cousin Sheldon Edwards.

“Stick your stomach out!” coached Nunez from the side of the pool, arching his back and sticking out his stomach to show the movement. Edwards mimed it, bobbing triumphantly in the middle of the pool. Then he and McLaurin raced each other to the middle of the pool, and back to the side.

Back in the shallow end, a mix of kids and kids with their parents worked on their swimming skills. Nursing a calf cramp, 11-year-old Nyasia Redmond exhorted the value of having a pool close to home, open six of seven days a week for her to use in the afternoons.

“It’s nice, when you have somewhere to go in the heat of the summer,” she said.

Nearby, mom Michelle Perry took a dip with her kids. She said that they’ve attended every day since the pool has been open, and intend to attend every day until it closes in August.

“It’s exciting because the kids love to swim,” she said. ​“It’s nice to go instead of the beaches — more safe and secure.”

“But I don’t want to get too wet,” she added with a grin.