Photo courtesy of Tippa Chan
While Choate swimmers were training at home or splashing in warmer waters over Winter Break, their most expensive and arguably most important piece of equipment was being replaced – the multi-thousand-dollar full color LED video display scoreboard that has loomed majestically over the Larry Hart Pool since its installation in 2014.
The problems with the board permeated beneath the surface. “It’s a whole patchwork of individual panels, and some of those were not acting correctly. There would be little green and blue lights that would stay on all the time, you couldn’t get rid of them. When we were trying to repair that, we realized there was corrosion on the back of the board, which is not a thing that should happen. So, we were concerned about that,” explained Mr. Todd Currie, Biology teacher and coach of Varsity Swimming. “We went back to Colorado Timing System, who made the display. We said, ‘This can’t look like this for the amount of years it’s been here. It’s an expensive item, and this is not okay.’ And they agreed, and they said, ‘We’ll replace the board, because the one you have isn’t working the way we expect it to.’”
The root of the problem lay not in the board itself, but the pool environment. “A pool environment is a horrible place to be anything electronic, right? It’s warm, humid, there’s gases, things like chlorine coming off, so it’s an incredibly corrosive environment,” explained Mr. Currie.
The coaches and team take great care to maintain the health of the pool equipment. “That’s why we put the timing system parts away every day. That’s why you have to do a lot of maintenance and all that to keep them from corroding.” However, the air composition in the pool remains an issue of concern. Some swimmers were worried that the same issues would remain even after the replacement. Mr. Currie, however, put these worries to rest, stating, “In four or five years, it shouldn’t have to get replaced again. This should have a life span of many years. This one is a newer model that should be better. [Colorado Timing Systems] understood and said, ‘yes, that shouldn’t have corroded that way, so we’re going to replace it.’ They should have replaced it with something that will function normally.” If all goes according to plan, the scoreboard should hold its own for another 15 to 20 years. “It’s designed for this environment. It’s for an indoor pool,” affirmed Mr. Currie.
The complementary replacement of the faulty board would not have been possible without Senior Electrician Mr. Frank Peters. “[He is] the one who handles all of that stuff. When the system doesn’t work, it’s really Frank who’s done all the work identifying what the problem was, working with the people, making sure that the new thing gets installed. He’s the guy who was here over break when they were doing the changes and getting everything lined up. He’s the guy who was here this morning getting it back up while they worked out the kinks in the system,” stated Mr. Currie. Going into the new year, Choate Athletics has Mr. Frank and the rest of Facilities to thank for a fresh start and a shiny new scoreboard.
