This Saturday, Dec. 17, the Aquatic Program will host its first ever combined boys and girls Alumni water polo games and inaugural Swim and Water Polo Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The program's 40 year history of excellence, leadership, and success will be honored and celebrated by City of Agoura Hills officials, and attended by some 200 past and present Chargers, family and friends. Fundraising plans to bring an energy-efficient, regulation-size pool facility to Agoura Hills will be presented.
Todd Simmons, Alumni Chair of the Agoura Aquatic Foundation, is spearheading outreach to all past Chargers and their families. Simmons, class of 1988, has issued an invitation and message to all who are willing to support the Foundation's goals and objectives: to bring a championship level pool to Agoura High School and the Agoura Hills community at large, and to improve opportunities for area youth to participate in aquatics. At forty years old, the existing pool is simply too dated, too small and too shallow to efficiently serve its growing number of student athlete participants, or to meet community needs. Constructed in 1971, Agoura High School's pool is in serious need of a makeover. Much has changed at Agoura High School in the past 40 years; its pool facility, however, remains stuck in the era of reel-to-reel video, bouffant hairdos, mini skirts and the "Funky Chicken" dance craze.
Simmons is part of a charitable organization working to change all that, and invites all Charger Alumni to join him on the pool deck this weekend to learn more about the plan, reconnect with old friends, meet some new ones, honor AHS and the aquatic program - and enjoy watching the youngsters "school" their elders!
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” Pablo Picasso
Greetings Alumni of Agoura High School Aquatics Program,
My Name is Todd Simmons. I graduated in 1988 and was a part of the Agoura High School Aquatics program for the minimal time I was at AHS. I went on to play water polo in college and continued on to a National Masters Water Polo Team where I have played since. I have had the opportunity to play against the top NCAA teams and have played across the nation against other master programs both here and abroad. I cherish the sport and have made a lot of friends and great memories.
I tell people all the time that the pool is the “Fountain of Youth,” at least I believe it to be. My passion for the sport has led me back to our alma mater in support of building a new foundation for the thriving water polo and swim programs. The has approved the Agoura Aquatic Foundation’s plan to reconstruct a state-of-the-art pool in the same location that the current pool occupies. The district is not contributing funding for this Project. We as alumni and as a foundation must do this alone.
Many of us grew up in Agoura or the surrounding areas and have spent a lot of time in the AHS Pool. I learned to swim there thirty-seven years ago and have been in that pool every year since. It is a great pool and I am sure, like myself, you have some great memories, whether it was learning to swim, winning a swim race, jumping off the high-dive for the first time, scoring your first goal or bringing home a CIF title.
But it’s time to build for the future and move the program to the next level to stay competitive in the world of water polo and swimming. The program has recently learned it will be moving up to CIF Division II status as a result of its success. We need your support to make this vision possible. The Agoura High School pool facility is now 40 years old and so is the technology. The AHS pool is expensive to run and was almost shut down due to very high operational and maintenance costs. We have an opportunity to support and help build the Agoura Aquatic Center, which will feature a 35 meter competition pool that, at minimum, will provide handicap accessibility and utilize today’s advanced energy efficient measures, which will help control the pool's operational costs. Agoura’s boys and girls water polo programs are currently ranked amongst the top programs in Southern California and the state, for that matter. Swimmers have continued to excel since their inaugural 1971 teams. All of our efforts have brought the water polo and swim programs to today's status. We made history! Now, we have the opportunity to give back.
On behalf of the current AHS Water Polo team members, coaches Dustin Litvak and Jason Rosenthal, Agoura Aquatic Foundation and myself, we cordially invite you to join us at Agoura High School on Dec. 17, at 11:30 a.m. for our first annual combined boys and girls Alumni Water Polo Games, and Swim/Water Polo Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Food trucks will be available for food purchases, and a complementary dessert table will be provided for guests. City officials will be in attendance to congratulate and acknowledge the program and its athletes, past and present, for their outstanding, historic and current successes.
Please, join me and take this opportunity to acknowledge our history, support our future, revisit our Alma Mater and help sustain the Agoura High School Aquatic Program.
Todd C. Simmons
