AURORA | In a manner of speaking, Overland High School is no longer landlocked.

For 48 years, swimmers and divers from the school had no water to call their own on campus and had to practice and compete in facilities a block away at Utah Park.

Thanks to a major bond passed by voters in 2024, that has all changed. Officials from Cherry Creek Schools, Overland and the city of Aurora were onhand Friday morning to cut the ribbon on the new facility.

It marked the official completion of the 35,000-square-foot facility, which broke ground in May of 2025. The pool holds 417,000 gallons of water and has eight lands available for competition. The facility also includes lockerrooms, two rooms for health classes plus team rooms and public restrooms that can be used by spectators at outside fields.

Overland had been the only district high school without its own swimming pool and was the only other large school in the Aurora area other than Vista PEAK Prep (Aurora Public Schools’ newest high school) without an on campus facility.

The school’s swim teams had used Utah Park, but it was closed in 2025 to fix water leaks, replace pipes and repair structural programs and it didn’t reopen until April of this year.

According to athletic director Evan Henderson, the first official event in the pool will be the opening day of girls swim practice, which is allowed on Nov. 9 by the Colorado High School Activities Association.

Several members of the girls swim team — and some of the boys, who compete in the spring — were onhand for the opening ceremony, which included an appearance by Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman along with those instrumental in the planning and execution of the project.

Overland’s well-known marching band, mascot and cheerleaders were also part of the festivities, which included speeches by Dr. Jennifer Perry, Cherry Creek School District Interim Superintendent, Overland principal Sybil Booker, Cherry Creek School board member John-Claude Futrell along with students Kayden Gutierrez-Romero and Rylan Pineda.

The project — built by Saunders Construction and designed by DLR Group — is part of massive work around the Cherry Creek School District made possible by the $950,000,000 bond approved by voters (Ballot Measure 4B).

Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports

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