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PITTSBURG —
The pool season starts soon, and Pittsburg Parks and Recreation is busy this weekend plugging the holes in its lifeguard ranks created by attrition.
The department is training five new summer lifeguards for its swimming pools, a process that happens each year as former guard leave. When they are finished, the guards will be certified Red Cross lifeguards. Pittsburg State University allows the city to use its aquatic center in the Weede Physical Education Building while it prepares its own pools to open.
Their training will teach them how to survey the pool area to recognize and prevent injuries, how to rescue people in the water and on land, first aid training and professional rescuer CPR, and professional lifeguard responsibilities such as interacting with the public and addressing uncooperative swimmers.
“They get the full gamut, from the time the victim is retrieved to when EMS arrives,” said Parks and Recreation Superintendent Sara Mitchell, who teaches the course and is a certified lifeguard and trainer. “They’re training to keep victims alive.”
The city employs 31 lifeguards over the summer. There are 22 full-time guards who work in teams of 11, seven sub guards and two who work the wading pool at Schlanger Park.
“We match them by experience, strength, male and female,” Mitchell said. “Experience is huge.”
Each potential lifeguard first must pass a stamina test that includes swimming six laps, treading water without using their arms for two minutes and a timed exercise in which they must swim a set distance and retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool. The course was recently revised from 36 hours of training to its current 25.
“They look at it every five years to see what works and how they can make it better,” Mitchell.
On Friday, the new guards completed some classroom work before hitting the water to learn how to retrieve a sunken victim and how to strap victims onto a back board while in the water. Samantha Wyatt, a sophomore at PSU who also is a member of the volleyball team, said she signed up because she had heard friends raving about the job.
“A couple of my teammates did it, and they said it was an experience I wouldn’t forget,” Wyatt said. “I think the chance to have an impact on people is a pretty big deal, and I’m used to working with a team. That’s what lifeguarding is all about.”
Chelsea Montgomery is a senior at Pittsburg High School and is graduating this weekend. She said she had worked at the concession stand at the Pittsburg Aquatic Center for several years and wanted to take a step up.
“Lifeguards are responsible and respected,” Montgomery said. “I wanted to try it out.”
After the first rounds of training, Montgomery said she respects lifeguards even more.
“The first test (stamina) was pretty hard, and the rescues in deep water have been pretty difficult,” she said. “But I think it’s going to be fun.”
The pool season starts soon, and Pittsburg Parks and Recreation is busy this weekend plugging the holes in its lifeguard ranks created by attrition.
The department is training five new summer lifeguards for its swimming pools, a process that happens each year as former guard leave. When they are finished, the guards will be certified Red Cross lifeguards. Pittsburg State University allows the city to use its aquatic center in the Weede Physical Education Building while it prepares its own pools to open.
Their training will teach them how to survey the pool area to recognize and prevent injuries, how to rescue people in the water and on land, first aid training and professional rescuer CPR, and professional lifeguard responsibilities such as interacting with the public and addressing uncooperative swimmers.
“They get the full gamut, from the time the victim is retrieved to when EMS arrives,” said Parks and Recreation Superintendent Sara Mitchell, who teaches the course and is a certified lifeguard and trainer. “They’re training to keep victims alive.”
The city employs 31 lifeguards over the summer. There are 22 full-time guards who work in teams of 11, seven sub guards and two who work the wading pool at Schlanger Park.
“We match them by experience, strength, male and female,” Mitchell said. “Experience is huge.”
Each potential lifeguard first must pass a stamina test that includes swimming six laps, treading water without using their arms for two minutes and a timed exercise in which they must swim a set distance and retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool. The course was recently revised from 36 hours of training to its current 25.
“They look at it every five years to see what works and how they can make it better,” Mitchell.
On Friday, the new guards completed some classroom work before hitting the water to learn how to retrieve a sunken victim and how to strap victims onto a back board while in the water. Samantha Wyatt, a sophomore at PSU who also is a member of the volleyball team, said she signed up because she had heard friends raving about the job.
“A couple of my teammates did it, and they said it was an experience I wouldn’t forget,” Wyatt said. “I think the chance to have an impact on people is a pretty big deal, and I’m used to working with a team. That’s what lifeguarding is all about.”
Chelsea Montgomery is a senior at Pittsburg High School and is graduating this weekend. She said she had worked at the concession stand at the Pittsburg Aquatic Center for several years and wanted to take a step up.
“Lifeguards are responsible and respected,” Montgomery said. “I wanted to try it out.”
After the first rounds of training, Montgomery said she respects lifeguards even more.
“The first test (stamina) was pretty hard, and the rescues in deep water have been pretty difficult,” she said. “But I think it’s going to be fun.”
