- December 6, 2025
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The wait for a new home has been difficult for youth swim programs in Lakewood Ranch.
For years, local swimmers have had to accept limited space or long drives just to practice.
So naturally, ever since Manatee County broke ground on a competition 50-meter pool at Premier Sports Campus North, the swimmers have pestered their coaches with questions about it, hoping for good news.
“They keep asking us all the time, ‘Have you heard anything about the new pool? Do you know if we're going?’” said Amy Barrett, a fifth-year assistant coach for the Lakewood Ranch Swim Association Lightning.
The 44,000-square-foot Athletics and Aquatics Center at Premier Sports Campus North changes the game for local swimmers and is the first of its kind in the area. Construction formally began in January, and the facility is scheduled for completion in summer or fall 2026.
It will also offer 24 pickleball courts, a therapy pool, restrooms, locker rooms and walking trails. But the Olympic-size, long-course pool alone will be a major draw for swimmers in the area.
Local swimmers have been accustomed to practicing and competing in short-course, 25-yard pools. That's the national standard used for learning fundamentals, improving strokes and competing when the swimmers begin their respective careers, whether it is recreational or competitive. Long-course, 50-meter pools, though, help swimmers focus on endurance and technique by reducing the number of turns.
For programs hoping to attract top talent, or to keep top talent at home, being able to offer a long-course pool isn’t just a boost — it’s a necessity. Elite competitors require elite facilities.
“These swimmers want to go to college on scholarships, and you can’t do that when you’re getting half the amount of space and time,” said Ira Klein, the 16th-year head coach for the Sarasota Tsunami, which draws many Lakewood Ranch-area swimmers.
The Lightning and the Tsunami are two clubs with particularly-strong interest in making the Premier pool their new home if Manatee County will adopt them. Both programs have experienced an influx of swimmers looking to join their respective programs.
Steve Lubrino is head coach for the Lightning, and has held the position since 2018. He’s run operations alongside Barrett for eight years. In that time, their program has blossomed from 45 kids to around 130.
They hold six practices weekly during afternoons at the Lakewood Ranch YMCA, and depending on the season, will have as many as eight if mornings are added. But that location only allows them four or five lanes throughout the year.
“Right now, we’re a travel team. We do not hold swim meets at our pool because we just don’t have the spacing for it,” Lubrino said. “It would be nice for the kids to feel like they have a home meet. That would be exciting for them to feel like they have this pool that they can call home.”
Olympic-size pools typically include at least eight long-course lanes. And because it’s 50 meters long by 25 meters wide, the pool can also be divided into lanes by width, offering at least 20 short-course lanes.
Lubrino and Barrett both anticipate that being enough space for the Lightning to use the pool year-round while sharing it with other potential suitors.
The Tsunami will be one of their biggest competitors for pool time, in that regard. Co-founded by Ira and Cindy Klein in 2010, the club has always been branded with “Sarasota,” but also offers a program for Manatee County-based athletes.
They're hoping to move that program's operations to the new pool once it opens, though. As of Oct. 20, Ira Klein said they do not have an arrangement in place with the county to do so. Their Sarasota County-based athletes would not be part of the move if an agreement is reached.
Currently, the Tsunami's non-Sarasota swimmers practice and compete at Arlington Park and Aquatic Complex in Sarasota — which offers a 50-meter pool and is at least a 18-mile drive southwest of Premier Sports Campus. The club’s other location is Lincoln Aquatic Center in Palmetto, which would require another 17-plus-mile drive northwest of where the Premier pool will be.
“It’s hard to get brand new swimmers," Ira Klein said. "Many of them are young swimmers, on average 7 to 12 years old. The parents are not as willing to say, ‘Yes, I want my child to swim,’ when they have to drive all the way down to Arlington Park, many miles away, or try to go to Lincoln when the traffic up the 301 is just horrendous.”
Parents of swimmers from both the Tsunami and the Lightning have long been some of the most outspoken advocates for a 50-meter pool in Lakewood Ranch. Their kids often also compete with area high school swim programs.
There are three East County-based high schools which offer swim programs — Lakewood Ranch, Braden River and The Out-of-Door Academy. It’s uncertain if any of them would make a move to Premier Sports Campus.
It’s the Lightning and the Tsunami who are poised to use the new aquatic complex if the county allows it. They hope this dream-turned-reality will push swimmers toward their goals and further boost the already-strong interest in their programs.
