Beantown Podcast - Northern Illinois Swimming Pool Power Rankings

Episode Date: June 12, 2021

I wrote a whole long description but then soundcloud crashed and imma be honest I'm not gonna write all that out again *honorable mention to the downtown YMCA. u were cold but refreshing

Hey, what's going on? It's Quinn, the furnace and welcome to my show, Quinn, the furnace presents the bean Tom podcast for Friday, June 11th, 2021, what's going on? Year four of the bean Tom podcast. How are you? Tom podcast. How are you? I introduced the podcast to a new friend today, a literally a new friend, my friend of the podcast, Haley Benson. He's been on before back in year one. She has a new S.O. And Mike, shout out to Mike if you're if you're catching this episode, good to meet you. I hope you're doing well. I told Mike about the time Hayley was on the show and said yeah I was you know back in 2018 and he was like wow You been running this show for quite some time and I was like welcome to bean town baby My name is Quinn and this is my show and the producer editor director

script supervisor, head of the second unit, all that stuff for this show. Before I say anything else before I forget, a quick shout out Happy Birthday to my sister, Abby Ferness, sister of the podcast been on many, many times. You know her as a fantasy football expert. You know her as other things as well. She'll always be my sister. Happy birthday to my sister, 25. She can now rent a car without exorbitant fees. And she's got one year left on the parents health insurance. So pretty exciting stuff. My happy birthday to my sister, Abby Furnace.

Folks, today, today we're going to jump right into it. It's a power rankings show. We're bringing back the ever popular power rankings segment. And I want to give a thank you to all of my friends and fans and followers on Facebook actually of all places I conducted a poll or a sort of call to action for the listeners yesterday I said we're doing we're doing some power rankings today What would you like to see us rank and I got to say this we got a lot of engagements When I think they're at least like ten comments something like that which is pretty good for this show

Especially on Facebook where there's just not a lot of action. You do something on Instagram or Twitter oftentimes you get you get decent amount of conversation flowing, but Facebook can be tougher, but we got a lot of great suggestions. And I'm not just saying that we had one come in late the midnight hour. In fact, I think it was today. It came in from brother the podcast Walter Fernis. And I was a big fan of the suggestion and we're going to run with it. So I apologize to most of the people listening because you're not really going to be able to personally identify with a lot of it. But I'm going to do my best to be as descriptive with my words and my reasoning as possible and hopefully you will enjoy. So folks today we are power ranking the top 10 pools in Northern Illinois. Let's call it high school slash college pools, okay? Because we're not, we're not gonna go to like the Rockford Park District outdoor pools, right? There's no magic waters on this list. No, what was the name

of that one up on Riverside, Sun Tan Pool, something like that. It was something strange like that, I never went. We are sticking to strictly the high school scene and very ever so slightly the college scene. I got to tell you, pools wise, there was the pool, like a club of some kind, I don't remember, Dolphin's Swim Club, something like that, that Joy Wyrock, either managed or, I don't know exactly what her role was, but that was out there on next to that gymnastics place, was that on Spring Creek or spring brook or something, but then kind of around the corner,

where some old friends, the Perkins used to live, and I don't remember exactly how you get back in there, but dear friend of the show PJ Schiller, Peter Joseph Schiller was a lifeguard there when we were in high school. And in the summers, it was like a homeowner's condo is association sort of thing. You had to be like an exclusive member

who lived in the neighborhood to get access. And thus it was always very quiet. But PJ would be on guard literally. And I would stop at the Taco Bell and get him, uh, him and I some 99 cent roll ups, you know, kind of like burrito junior. It'd basically just be like rice and ground beef and cheese sauce. But I'd pick us up some of those and we, I would come to the end of his shifts and we would just hang out and shoot the breeze. I think the pool itself was called Springbrook although I don't recall. And yeah, I got into the very exclusive members only swimming pool. Those types of pools are not

going to be on the list. Folks, before we get started, I'll mention, listen to your discretion as advised. When you are listening to the Bean Tom Podcast, number one, we'll occasionally use some language number to this podcast is objectively terrible, although I think it today is gonna be fun. We're throwing it back to our rock-ford roots and more generally the rock-river valley. And I'll say this, we're gonna get right into it.

There will be nostalgia, stories, comments along the way. But I'm going to jump right in once we get started. And we'll briefly mention our sponsors at the halfway point. With these power rankings, we usually do half ad reads, and then the other half, we're going to move pretty quickly. The reason for that, it's already 9.15 pm. The night kinda got away from me. Cause we were out after the Cubs game.

I didn't go to the Cubs game I was working, but it went out after the Cubs game. It was opening day 2.0 to a bar with some friends. By the time you come back pick up groceries, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner. Now it's 9.15, which isn't that late for a Friday night, right? But I'm waking up early to run in the morning and frankly I still got a shower. I haven't showered yet today and I'm feeling stinky. So I got to do all that before I go to bed and wake up early, okay?

So that's the plan. We've got everything out of the way, and let's jump into our power rankings. So the first thing, the only preference I really have is that there's many more pools than the ones we're going to name, okay? is that there's many more pools than the ones we're going to name, okay? So if I leave your favorite off the list,

it's not because I think number 10 on the list is better than what I excluded. It's simply because I didn't personally have a lot of individual knowledge and or memories attached to it, OK? So if you want to write in, if we have any, let's say, Eric Walker's listening or Jeff Gullitz, you know, any of our Jack Trouble or Kenny Trouble, any of those folks listening to the show this week whether it's BeentownPodcast.com, SoundCloud, Spotify, CastBox, PlayerFM, whatever. Okay, Apple Podcast, Google Play Store, wherever you're listening, if I didn't include your favorite on the list, I apologize, it wasn't meant to leave anyone out.

It's just what we had to work with, okay. So there's 10 in the list list and in no particular order, here is the list of 10 that we're power ranking. We are going, and it's a lot of Nick 10 schools. Well, the ones that have pools for the most part are represented here. On our list we have Auburn, Jefferson, Boylin, Rockford College, Byron, Harlem, Gilford, East, Freeport, and Eisenhower, a little middle school action for you. You might have noticed a couple that are not on the list, perhaps you were hopeful for. I'm thinking like, does Han and Ega have a pool?

Presumably, because they're so good. I, however, don't believe I ever swam up there. I also did not include Barrington. I did not include sterling Which you might have expected. I am going to give a special shout out however to the sterling that now defunct sterling outdoor pool I don't really recall

the interior of sterling, although I swam there multiple times, but I think it was, you know, in club before high school. I once won a quick claim to fame when I was eight years old. This is a true story. My crowning athletic achievement in life. I won the 8 and under 25 yard breaststroke at, I don't know what it was called, Junior Olympics, something like that, domination on the part of the quenster, okay? Big claim to fame there, 8 and under 25 yard breaststroke. The ultimate sprint, felt style. So, but Sterling had an outdoor park on it. I believe it was an island in the rock river. I never swam at that outdoor pool because I didn't typically swim club in the summers. I played baseball.

But we would go, there was a lot of outdoor space great for for throwing the ball around have a picnic bring some fun-size Doritos some pudding when's the last time you had pudding we had it you know 15 years ago but we had it so So shout out to the Stirling Pool. And just down, while we're down there, and the rock river getting closer to where it feeds into the Illinois River, I actually wrote this down. In honorable mention, but I'm going to call it a dishonorable mention to Morrison Heistful.

And here is my reasoning. They didn't have a deep end, okay? But we swam there many times throughout, you know, the career, but one time in particular, I think it was my senior year, or perhaps my junior year of swimming. They had diving blocks. I think at a certain point they had them and then they took them out and then they brought them back. I don't know the full history.

But when we swam there, they had diving blocks. And again, let me repeat this. There is no deep end. The pool is like four feet. And you're doing normal starts off the blocks, which for the non-swimmers listening, if you don't know what, you know, swimming block is, I don't know what, a meter high, something like that. So imagine jumping, diving into a pool, hands and head first, into a shallow pool, it would just like scared to death. And I recall in one of my events, one of my races, because I honestly, when we did warm-ups, you know, you do two sprints from the blocks, whatever, to get a feel for it. And in one of them, I think I scraped my, either my nose or my pack or my belly, something like that. Something just grazed to the bottom.

No injury or anything, but there was contact, which is not uncommon, because I was a pretty deep diver. And so obviously, you want to make an adjustment, but it's kind of hard without you know, getting a ton of practice reps to just be like, okay I'm not gonna dive as shallow or as deep You know to just like just make a you know flip a switch and decide it like that's hard So and one of my events I pretty much belly flopped off the blocks and I remember getting out in the official laughing at me. And it's just like I could have done a normal dive and cracked my skull open and died and sued the Morrison

public school district, whatever, for so much money, and then we would see who is laughing, okay? And that's all I want to say about that, because I'm getting worked up, and I laptop is down to 55%, which is like 10 minutes. So dishonorable mention to Morrison High School, Be better, okay? Construct a deep end, if you will. Okay, so folks, coming in at number 10, and I wanted, I didn't want to include pools on the list that I wasn't familiar so much with,

because obviously I can't do much discussion, but there are a couple. Number 10 is Freeport, the pretzels, straight west of Rockford along Highway 20. And TBH, I don't know that much about Freeport, but I'm pretty sure it's a very rough old pool. And I tell you what, if anyone out there is listening, who is more familiar with the pretzels and the pretzel pool, email us bean-tum podcast yahu.com again, it's bean-tum being podcast yahu.com.

And let us know your thoughts. We'll read them live on the air in the next show, okay? The freeport pretzels, not a fan. Okay. Number nine and it pains me to say to put this pool at number nine and in fact you know what I'm gonna do live on air I'm switching eight and nine just because with nine there was nostalgia with eight there was just pain and so I figure why don figured, why don't we flip? So our original eight, but coming in at number nine now, Eisenhower Middle School.

I didn't spend a lot of time at Eisenhower. There was one year, I believe, of club swimming, where for a time, our normal home of Rockford College was unavailable. I think some co-ed pooped in the pool or something. So for about a month or so, my brother Jack and I, we were in the same lane, division, whatever. We swam at Eisenhower, and it was the worst. The pool was extremely cold.

The pool was extremely cloudy. The lane lines were razor blades. Our coach was this skinny little guy named Jeff. I don't know his last name. I just remember him being awful and not kid friendly. One time after practice, Jack and I were getting dressed in the locker room and along comes Nathan Crenicus. Yeah, I know, fun name, right? Crenicus.

K-R-I-N-I-C-K-A-S. Someone wanted to do a Google search, see what Crenicus is up to these days. I was Facebook friends with him at a certain point. But Nathan Crenicus had quit the club team. I think he was more interested in Conor-I at that point. The singing the boys of Rockford Conor-I led by Joel Ross, who worked at Randy's. The singing the boys of Rockford, Conor-I, led by Joel Ross, who worked at Randys. Cool guy. But the thing that pissed me off was he just came in and he was, I don't know if he was doing rat tails or just being smug as only Nathan Crenickus could be. And it

just always in hindsight pissed me off because he quit swimming and then came back to the point to stay on task here. Eisenhower, it was so cloudy, it was so cold, you could not see where you were going. And then you would conveniently, occasionally, what felt like splitting your hand open on the lane lines was just a deep red gash but unpleasant none the less. The original nine and I said you know when I started talking about I was like I was going to pay me to say it. We bumped it down to eight but that's about as

high as I can put it guys. East high school coming in at number eight and it's tough because East was our temporary home for one or two years when rock the college wasn't available for whatever reason but the thing with East I remember just like every day you'd walk in. And because we were quite private school kids, I just honestly like, I remember walking through the halls of East for a very short distance to get from the entrance to the locker room. And just the kind of crowd of people, district 205's finest 215, 205, I don't recall.

The crop of student hanging around in those hallways at 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. on a weekday, just scared me, okay? I'm 15 years old, I'm sheltered, extremely sheltered. So you're already scared, getting into that locker room. The locker room was kind of big and cavernous, and you couldn't really see much because the lockers were really tall.

And the showers were way off to the side. They were wide open, and never could I get a good consistent shower with the combination you're looking for. Good water pressure and good temperature. Never in my life that I have a good shower at East High School. The e-rabs, home of Rockford legend Eric Walker. I still check in on that guy's Facebook from time to time.

I don't think it's gotten a lot of action lately. But East was very cold, which I know is probably better for times, but when you got to go in there every, excuse me, every day for practice, unpleasant. East, the water tended to get really choppy. I remember swimming outside lanes sometimes, and it felt like I was like hang in tent off the coast of Maui or something. Like my kickboard could have doubled

as a bonsai surfboard kind of deal. And then the ultimate, well, two more things. Number one, when we had to Brexit East, we would do dry land, which for people who aren't swimmers, dry land is just like a 30 minute workout you would do in your own home. Okay? Free, free, free, wait. We're talking push ups, crunches, leg lifts, flutter kicks, box kicks, naked mudrestling, all that stuff. We had to do it in this room that was between the pool

and the outdoors in what was affectionately labeled by Mike Kirby as the meat locker. And because swim season goes from about November to February it was cold as balls because you're in this extremely drafty building that was probably constructed in the 1920s 30s I don't know and you are right next to the doors to the outside and those babies are not trapping in the heat at all and you would have to do dryland in there your nipples would be so hard you And those babies are not trapping in the heat at all. And you would have to do dryland in there.

Your nipples would be so hard, you could, you know, carve into the bottom of the pool when you got, when you jump back in. If you were at Morrison, your nipples would have been touched in the bottom of the pool when you're on the starting voice. That was bad. Here was the worst thing about East. And I don't recall if it was just a one year thing or if it was always like this because

it was just the one year where we were consistently in there for, you know, months at a time, week at a time. They had some sort of chlorine imbalance of some kind going on. And anyone who's on the team that year, I think this must have been 20, 2010, 2011, something like that. You would literally, you would finish a set or, you know,

25, a 50, a 100, whatever you were swimming, which if you don't know swimming, that's just one one link to the pool or two links, one link this 25 years, okay? So when you say a hundred, that's four links, two laps. You would come up hacking, not like Javier Baez at the plate, literally wheezing. You could not you could you could barely breathe. There was so much chlorine, something was going on in that pool. I don't know what, but I would, I remember just finishing touching the wall, coming up to breathe and just coughing for 15 to 20 seconds straight, unable to do anything but just cough. And when you're in the middle of a 8125 I am's on the 145,

my friends, that is not fun. Okay. So that I probably say more about east, individually than almost any other pool The lopen relays were fun though Those were at East right or Jefferson. I don't recall was there at East relays that were different I think there was lopen and Auburn right we'll get to them in a second You would you would have the wackiest events it would be like 25 Or no it would be like a 50 50 of one stroke a hundred to one stroke and a hundred fifty a one stroke. The only time you ever swim a hundred fifty breaststroke. I think Hans Reinhart swam a 150 breaststroke at about three 25 one year.

That kid was fast. At number seven, Jefferson High School. I don't have too much to say about Jefferson. Other than the pool itself seemed fine, spacious seating, I don't recall there being much in the way of deck space. I think Jefferson for its poor reputation kind of academically as a high school, the pool was probably one of the better parts about the experience.

But I just recall and granted, I know this is silly to kind of hear me say, but I just recall always feeling lost in that locker room. It always took me forever to figure out which ways up, which ways down, where am I going? Because the locker room itself is confusing, but then you leave the locker room, you're in this twisted labyrinth of classrooms and hallways in the basement.

Just trying, how do I get upstairs? Can someone help me please? And then I think you had to walk directly through the gym. Just to get from the entrance, we must go through the back entrance or something. But to get from the entrance, to the entrance to the stairway to go into the basement where you could get into locker room, I always struggle to find that entrance too. Jefferson was a

labyrinth and I was like the Minitar hunting for prey. Number six, a holiday special, Boyland Catholic high school. What was the Boyland mascot? Were they the Titans? Is that right? Boylin Titans. You, we swam one meet a year at Boylin. It was weird. What was Boylin? They had five events.

Was it the 100 free? 100 IM? 100 breasts, 100 flying 100 back. I think that's what it was. And you would swim four of them. So there was always one or two events you had to swim that were just awful. Because who want, it was literally,

it would literally be like two days after Christmas. You hadn't been practicing, you were sluggish. You'd think, oh, maybe you'll be fresh, but not me, probably other people. That's why Hans Reinhardt was, you know, he would finish those 100 breasts in at least 135 at Boylan. So you knew he was, he was feeling rested, but it was just never fun because Boylan was a far drive from us.

Other side of town, you'd have to get there, you know, 7am. I always, warmups are a whole separate thing in swimming, but at some of the busier meets, you would have literally like 15 people in one lane, swimming warm-ups. And just looking back on that now, from a sheer space perspective and a necessity perspective, I understand,

like I get it and I got it back then. But it just seems so absurd. The amount of middle schoolers, high schoolers, whatever, you would have crammed into one little lean to try to swim. I don't, I don't looking back on hindsight, I honestly don't think warmups really did that much. All it did was like you got really cold and then you have to get out and try to dry off and get warm. I honestly believe that I would have been more effective to just do a good stretch

and then just start from scratch with whatever event I had. That's probably not like, karmic to say in the swimming world, but I don't want to like, because you would have to swim, you you got 10 15 kids in one lane So you couldn't you you're not like doing normal laps Okay, you're swimming like halfway and then oh you reach the end of the line and then you wait and you're like hanging on lane lines waiting for it to be your turn yada yada yada and then repeat for like 10 minutes and then do a couple starts off the block Not just not not conducive to success, in my opinion. And I recall in this happened at many places,

traditionally the bigger meats, but boiling warmups were always just a shit show. And boiling, there was such limited deck space. There was such limited deck space. We would literally get crammed all the way into the back corner against the outside wall. Boiling had a very small like cooldown pool that was more like a hot tub from a size perspective. And we would just be huddled around that,

just waiting for your turn to come up. This was you know like a four-hour meet something like that insane right after Christmas The last thing you want to do on like a random Saturday morning or whenever it was I was not a fan of the boiling meat. They're pool. Okay, but almost no deck space Always flooded and you always had to look at Jack Trouble. Okay, that was number six. I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsors here at the Bean Tom podcast, Cuts by Q. If you need a fresh do, you know who to call. He's me, 815, 2998, 7200, or you-7200 or you can email us,

beantompa, or cutsbyqyahoo.com, and that's cutsqtzbyqyahoo.com, or you can go to beantompaches.com slash cutsbyq. That's good option, excuse me, a good option as well. The Samsung Q2U series, it's got crisp, clear audio quality, it's biblical in proportion and when God speaks he uses the Samson and Finally, Home Pride Oregon If folks let me tell you home prices are going up through the wazoo. You don't want to miss out on these

Rock solid prices Call Steve his numbers 541-410-0316 solid prices. Call Steve, his number is 541-410-0316. He'll get your home inspected at a rate you can trust. Contractor certified, home inspected certified, give him a call or go to HomePriorging.com, talent-quinsentia, zero percent off referral. Okay so so far we had a dishonorable mention of Morrison. We had a little shout out to the Sterling Outdoor Pool. Number 10 freeport, number nine, Eisenhower, number eight East, seven Jefferson, six of Boylan. So here we go. Coming in at number five, Auburn High School. And if I'm

going to be completely honest, I don't remember that much about Auburn. And I don't have that much to say. So I'm not going to blab here. I'm just going to tell you what I recall of Auburn, very limited deck space. I remember every meet you go to the deck by, you know, the second event. By the way, what's the order of events in high school swimming? I think I recall the first event being the medley relay, the last event being the four by one.

Towards the end was the breaststroke. And the four by 50 was like the fourth from the end, something like that. The 500 was like the fourth from the end something like that The 500 was like right in the middle and that was that was you know And if you have like a three hour movie that was the second act where just you get up and go to the bathroom Because you're not missing anything. Let me tell you I Could go on and on about where things fit in the order, but I don't, frankly, I don't recall exactly how things functioned.

Hundred free, that was probably close to the start, right? I could probably look it up. Is there like a high school swimming probably, probably not, right? I was going to say is there a set order? Probably, I don't think so. Like unified across the country, my dad't think so. Like, unified across the country, my dad would probably know. We'll get his insights and report back.

What I remember of Auburn, other than Nathan Crennicus, I miss, not misspoke, I stumbled over my words and almost said, naked Nathan Crennicus. It's not what we call them. But alas, I'm sure at some point he was naked. And I've probably seen him naked.

OK, Nathan, if you're listening, rough episode, it gets better. We don't talk about high school swimming that frequently on the show. 180 episodes in first or second time it's coming up. I just recall Auburn, half an hour into the event, the deck was completely flooded. And so if you had a duffel bag or anything that you'd brought with you,

and there weren't any chairs left and it had to be on the floor, that baby was underwater, okay? That's about all I can recall from Auburn High School. I don't think Auburn had much in the way of seating compared to, you know, a rock for Christian or a Jefferson. I think it was just like three rows of bleachers running along one side, which is not much. Number four was the other one on our list that I haven't been, but the reason I put it so high is because Gilford High School has a reputation as being the rich,

white public school in Rockford and Zach Durango went there and I think Zach Durango was rich in white and I am just assuming as someone who I am Pretty sure never swam at Gilford. I'm just assuming they had a nice pool Considering the overall state of rockford public schools when things were constructed, etc It's probably in the same echelon of an Auburn or a Jefferson, right? It's probably got that vibe. But I just assume they probably had some extra money lying around at some point for some upgrades. Better shower pressure, lane lines. I don't feel like they're slicing your hands open.

Cheerleaders. So that's my take on Gilford without ever having been there. Number three, Harlem High School. I never had to practice at Harlem, but generations of rockford Christian swimming that came after me, that became their permanent home. And so I've spent a little bit of time there, one just attending attending some practices when I was in college and then two I did lifeguard training at Harlem High School and it just seemed like a solid, solid pool. Like no complaints. They had some diving boards which were cool. It was a nice

six-lane pool, ample seating. The end was like windows to the outside, kind of got like a US bank stadium kind of vibe going on. The locker rooms were completely fine, you know, met the needs of the people very well. And I just never had any issues with Harlem High School. The water temperature was normal. There was one women's girls swim meet when I was in high school.

And I went there. I went to a meet one time with Caleb Seagrin to cheer on the women's team when I was junior in high school, something like that. And I think it was the four by 100 relay. It was the last race. I think Bree Pachin was swimming the anchor. And it's her.

She's the caboose of the race. So she's the last person to jump in. The third leg touches the wall. She dives in. And I swear to God, she comes up in another lane. And D.Q. Dockins was not there. But if he would have been, he would have given the immediate disqualification and signal. And she was disqualified. And I mean, what are

you supposed to do in that situation? You're DQ'd. You're out of there. But I felt kind of bad, but it was also hilarious. And speaking of disqualifications, I got disqualified one time in my swimming career. It was early in a, in like a throwaway high school dual meter or something. I think I was swimming fly in the medley relay and Hans Reinhart was swimming the breast stroke leg. He was a millimeter and a half from touching the wall and that little son of a bitch pulls back for another stroke like in the felt the classic felps fly outtouch by one one hundredth of a second right kind of trying to do that strategy except the exact opposite or the same thing but the exact opposite effect Or the same thing, but it had the exact opposite effect.

And I dove in before because I don't like to play the blame game, but I'm taking zero responsibility for that disqualification. Not to mention putting me on the fly leg of a medley relay questionable. I had OK Butter sprint speed but I can never keep it up for a hundred. Just like my sexual performance, can't keep it up. two. Byron High School. I was always a big Byron fan. It was just that your big meets were at Byron, both club and high school. I love still to this day. I love the drive along Route 2 from the airport down to Byron and eventually you know all the way down to

you know Dixon, Oregon, Sterling, Morris and whatever we talked about all that already. But it's such a pretty drive especially I love just the scenery and the trees, the nuclear power plant, and the chair noble like qualities. It was just a lovely time. And great seating, rowdy atmosphere, engaged crowd all the time. Standard locker rooms. We even took some photos in there one time to celebrate something. I don't know. I think it's illegal to take pictures in a locker and we did it anyways. Showers, good. You always had a spot. They had those little like

poles that had like five different spots on them. A nice missed great temperatures. Sok quality locker rooms. I remember being in club and you'd hang out in the gym across the hallway. Real nice big gym. And yeah, sitting on those, sitting on what, sleeping bags on a hardwood floor. What a time to be alive. You get a big cookie if you win your heat. But no, Byron was just like cool, cool water temperatures, but I would say crisp, not so cool that it's debilitating, good starting walks, good grip. You know, solid seating. They always treated us well, and we would go down there for like sectionals or whatever. There was one section of bleachers

Kind of off in the corner that they always gave us and it was it was great You know Good energy people always cheering each other on That's the other thing I've just remembered cheers We would do not the TV show, the chanting. Every team, in like a sectional meet or a conference meet, prior to the start of the activities, the medley relay, you'd go around and each team had their own chant. ours was in Spanish, which was ironic because there wasn't a single underrepresented minority at our entire school.

But it translated to Dan Stan's Revolution and followed by chanting of Che Guevara, just his first name. I don't know. It was that like a Josh, I was gonna say Josh Reddit, he's an athlete. Speaking of athletes, was that a Josh Norrick relic? Anyone chime in? Hunter Nelson? Anyone? I don't know. Biala, Biala, Rev. C. Oh, che, che, repeat. And we also, and this brings us to our number one in the power rankings. And you knew it was going to be number one, a little ulygy rockford college, now rockford university, but the, the OG

golden days down there by, uh, Greeley field. So that what it's called, we're the football team plays in the, uh Aquatic Center, Athletic Center, something like that? I'm fuzzy on the details. I apologize. It's been years. The Rockford College pool. The most, maybe not the most, but something that is underrated, rarely talked about worth mentioning because we almost never got to have meets there.

Ample seating, both sides, probably the most seating of any pool in the state line area. I think that's accurate. You had, you could sit for days, a new spot every hour and be there for years. It's always easy to overestimate how great your home pool is, but I rockford college at everything. You had a gym across the way, you had great locker room space, you had the swim locker room and the football locker room, which was like off limits and always felt like kind of spooky as a kid. He had two different shower areas, the small area for JV and then the back area.

You had your shower. It was warm, great shower pressure. We would sing in there, hymns, doxology. Scott Guthrie had a rich tenor voice. Great harmony. You had the bathrooms if you went through the door and all the way to the back hallway. Great bathroom quality in there. Way better than taking a shit in the toilet literally off to the side of the pool. Or the one in the next to the like coaches office I guess you would say, I never really went into that bathroom either, just directly across from the gym entrance.

But always good water temperature. Real fun to dive into the deep end. Go all the way to the bottom. You feel your ear pressure, light up and go crazy. And that was just a cool sensation. Great blocks. Fun diving board. Real good acoustics.

Quality flags. Real good acoustics, quality flags, and I'm sure I'm forgetting, oh, the boiler room. Yeah, occasionally, like once a year, the door to the boiler room, which is more or less in the locker room, would just be carelessly left open. And I got to tell you, we would go down there. And it's like, I call it, we call it the boiler room, but it was an entire network of hallways and rooms and tubing and piping underneath the pool. It was like that, that nutty putty cave in Utah where that kid died and they sealed it up. That was what the boiler room was like.

You were in the basement and then you took stairs to go to the next basement. It was so cool. It was so hot down there. And I remember one time, like my junior senior of high school, we explored. And we went way back into the recesses. Probably, we were probably like underneath downtown Rockford by that point. And I remember it was spooky, spooktober,

like an actual horror movie. We got to this one room and there was a very dimly lit lamp that had been left on. All the way in the back corner of the room behind a whole bunch of stuff, there was a tiny desk, not like the fun NPR kind, but an actual tiny desk with a notebook and numbers scribbled in there and it looked fresh. And we got out of there because we were spooked.

The light was still on. It was scary. Rockford College, Reston Peece, the pool has been, I don't even know, I mean, what do you think they did? I suppose pretty much anyone can just like walk into that athletic center and check it out. I don't know what they did, I could probably find out. But they sealed up the pool, they hadn't

feel that a team since like the early 2000s, I think, a swim team. So I don't know what, they maybe like resurfaced to put another gym and another like hardwood flooring there that might make sense. But rest in peace, Rockford College, the OG, gone but never for gone. My laptop is down to 12%. We are running out of juice and I mentioned I was going to try to keep it shorter and here we are in minute 48.

And I apologize for that, but I hope and to be perfectly honest, I know that this podcast was only relevant to about five people listening here. But that's better than no one. And I just hope that for those of you who did stick around, who know anything about swimming pools in the state line area, that you had some fun coming down in this style gel lane with me tonight. And that's all I got to say about it.

So I hope everyone has a good weekend. I hope you enjoyed this week's installment of the Bean Tum Podcast. Next week is Father's Day. And I thought about this for a hot second yesterday. We got to come up with our fourth annual Father's Day song. And the even more extreme part about it,

I got to come up with it in less than a week because I'm gonna be out in a town next weekend in Milwaukee. So if you have any good ideas for Father's Day tunes, leave us a voicemail. You can do the John Tash thing where he was out of town and he came up with round ball rock and he calls his answering machine and records the demo and yada yada yada.

I'm open, I'm amenable to it and I don't, I screen my calls anyways so it works. That's what I got for you. Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoyed this week's installment of the Bean Tom Podcast. Again, you can always email us bean Tom Podcasts, yaku.com, and it's beantownmeantownpodcast.com. You can find all our shows and a whole lot more, including the Cuts by Q Archives and the Beantown blog at www.beantownpodcast.com. Wish me luck on my run tomorrow

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