Rose Bowl Aquatics Center Hosts Signing Day Event for Local Swim Athletes

The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center hosted a Signing Day event Wednesday to celebrate and congratulate the Rose Bowl Aquatics Swim Team athletes who will soon become student athletes at their respective colleges. 

At the event, a total of eight graduating high school seniors signed national letters of intent to attend a university as a student athlete next year.

They are Chloe Addiego from Crescenta Valley High School, who will be studying at Cornell University,  Igor Benderskii from La Cañada High School, who will be studying at University of Chicago, Max Cahill from Loyola High School who will go to Indiana University and Bella Fisco from Saugus High School who will go to The Ohio State University.

Completing the list are Jonathan Gim from West Ranch High School, who signed to be a student athlete of Brown University, Zach Larrick from Loyola High School who chose to go to University of Virginia, Rex Maurer from Loyola High School, who will go to Stanford University and Hojung Yoon from Crescenta Valley High School, who will study at Cornell University.

“One of them has made a national team and has represented the U.S. in international competition. The others are part of the Silver Club medal excellence program that Rose Bowl Aquatics was recognized at, so they’re all accomplished student athletes, all accomplished swimmers within USA Swimming,” said Andrew Nguyen, Head Coach at Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Nguyen said the Signing Day event is a great opportunity for Rose Bowl Aquatics Center to showcase its athletes. “We’re just super excited, super proud of them.” 

“As a non-profit organization, the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center definitely prides itself in trying to make sure that we take care of the entire community as a whole.” 

“The moment that you step on deck for swim lessons or our pre-competitive team all the way through our competitive swim team, we definitely want to make sure that we’re offering programs that will take care of the entire student athlete holistically from the beginning of their career all the way through high school, their high school graduation.” 

“We definitely want to set them up for life and I think this [Signing Day event] is a great showcase that if you do kind of invest in your craft and work hard and dedicate towards it, you will have the ability to swim or even play or be a student athlete at the next level.”

Nguyen expressed hopes that Rose Bowl Aquatics Center athletes will continue joining colleges as student athletes in the future. 

The Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, located in Pasadena’s Brookside Park, just south of the famous Rose Bowl Stadium, opened in 1990. 

The nonprofit, which serves over 450,000 patrons annually, offers year round aquatic and fitness programming to children, youth, families and seniors so that they can achieve the benefits of healthy living habits, regular exercise, and sports training.

Rose Bowl Aquatics Center is home to two Olympic-sized pools, two hydrotherapy spas, a spacious exercise and weight room and more and hosts world-class swim, dive, and water polo teams and a wide variety of programs including physical therapy, water aerobics, warm water exercise, lap swimming, learn-to-swim lessons, land-based fitness, and yoga.