Training teens to become lifeguards could save Philly public pools — and benefit youth

Thelma Nesbitt balanced on one leg to demonstrate the wide, sweeping motions needed to swim the breaststroke.

“It’s going to take practice,” she told a boy in the shallow end, sending him off to do more laps, at Center City’s Friends Select pool, one of the locations where the Department of Parks and Recreation trains and certifies Philadelphia lifeguards.

Nesbitt then encouraged a girl who was just learning how to swim to put her head underwater, and later helped her, and a third child, work on their flutter kick using bright blue kickboards.

Nesbitt’s work and the city’s intensified recruiting efforts have renewed optimism that Philadelphia could open more public pools this year, with the city receiving almost twice the number of lifeguard applications compared to last year, when the city opened 50 pools.

To date, Parks and Recreation has certified 250 lifeguards, and 70 candidates are in the pipeline to potentially be certified, said Maita Soukup, the department’s spokesperson. The city would need 400 lifeguards to open all of its operable pools.

In addition to raising pay and offering end-of-season bonuses, the city has provided free prescreening lessons, lifeguard training, and certification to swimmers of all abilities in the hopes that some could staff its public pools as early as June.

“We try to recruit lifeguards and teach candidates who are not the strongest swimmers, or who can’t swim, so they can pass the test,” Nesbitt said. “We’re here to help them; help them and work with them, and make sure they do it.”

While research hasn’t shown a direct connection between recreation access and gun violence, criminologists agree that children and young adults need to stay occupied in order to stay out of trouble. Activists and members of city government, including Councilmember Jamie and District Attorney Larry Krasner, have also spoken about the positive impact pools have on the city’s communities.

Outside of the potential for reduced violence, pools provide a space for kids to relax, play, and learn how to swim. Those positive experiences are necessary to mental, physical, and emotional development, according to a report from Everytown, a nonprofit organization that advocates against gun violence.

Time spent swimming might even lead some young people to become lifeguards.

In recent years, recruiting has been more difficult because of the national lifeguard shortage, which stems from low pay, certification costs, the seasonal nature of the job, lack of interest, decreased training because of the pandemic, and a more competitive labor market.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia pool closures leave neighborhoods without a vital community resource: ‘Why our pool?’

“For the most part, I just wish people took it like it was something,” said Will Coleman, a water safety instructor. “You know, this is lifeguarding. It’s not being no rapper or no singer or anything. You’re not a doctor, not yet. But it’s a job just like any other job.”

Local activists also blame the lifeguard shortage on indoor pool closures beginning in the 2000s, with pools in North, Northwest, and West Philadelphia closing for repairs, with no clear idea of when or whether they would open again. This leaves only one indoor pool, at Lincoln High School in Northeast Philly, open to the public. Residents say these pools were important because they provided year-round recreation and swimming lessons to the neighborhood, while also fostering connections within the community.

“Once you fix the pools, you’re going to open up avenues for children and for seniors not to just have jobs and employment, but relationships,” said Charisma Presley, one of the leaders of Friends of Philly Aquatics, a group fighting for indoor pools to open. “People who don’t have families, that’s your family.”

» READ MORE: ‘Should pools be our priority?’ West Philly pool becomes a battleground between community, city, and school board

Advocates for Sayre-Morris Pool were on the case starting in early 2022. In February of that year, the school board voted down a proposal to fund repairs to the pool, citing high costs. In December, Gauthier announced $4 million in funding from City Council and the state to lower the school district’s $10 million price point. Since then, community members have continued to put pressure on the school board, which took a new vote on the repairs budget at Thursday’s action meeting.

The decision was unanimous: Sayre Pool will be repaired and open within three years under the ownership of the school district, with Parks and Recreation responsible for general maintenance and upkeep.

They might also draw some hope from Superintendent Tony Watlington’s recently announced five-year strategic plan, which includes an as-yet undetermined number of elementary school swimming programs.

At the Friends Select pool, teens were divided into two groups. The first were still in training to pass the lifeguard screening test with Nesbitt. The second group, with Coleman, were training for their certification test on the other side of the pool.

Lifeguard training happens each weekend at Friends Select, and at several other indoor pools throughout the week. In the nearly 27-hour Red Cross certification course, trainees learn safety and professionalism, water entries and approaches, rescues, CPR, and first aid. A final exam determines whether a trainee becomes a certified lifeguard.

A decade-and-a-half ago, Coleman was in the same position as his students are now. After seeing a mentor in a lifeguard job, he took an interest. “I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be a lifeguard,’” he said.

Coleman failed his first lifeguard screening because he didn’t know how to swim properly, running out of energy before he could complete the 12 required laps. The current test requires stamina; candidates must be able to swim 300 yards without a break, tread water for two minutes without using their arms, and retrieve a 10-pound brick from 12 feet underwater. The experience helps Coleman empathize with trainees.

“That’s the first thing I make sure I teach my students — you know, they don’t know how to swim because they probably were someone like me,” he said.

Nesbitt has been involved with the Parks and Recreation Department for 33 years, first as a lifeguard, then as a water safety instructor. She started swimming seriously after a motor vehicle accident left her in a neck collar for several months. Part of her physical therapy was swimming.

The two instructors also play an active role in lifeguard recruiting. That includes social media outreach, visits to high schools and career centers, and events like the Philly Phreeze.

“Will and I will stop people, ‘Hey, you know anybody who wants to be a lifeguard?’” Nesbitt said. “‘Hey, you got any kids you want to kick out the house?’ Summer, they need a job. We got the job.”

Besides recruiting young adults, older age groups are also equally capable of becoming lifeguards. Robin Borlandoe, a Kingsessing grandmother, came out of retirement to staff her local pool.

» READ MORE: ‘Playing Fields, not Killing Fields’

“Grandma decided she’s going to help her community,” Nesbitt said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

The training and determination that are required to be a lifeguard, Coleman said, can be applied in all aspects of life, and Nesbitt believes learning how to save lives is a skill everyone should have, not just lifeguards.

“Everybody should learn how to do CPR because you never know when you might need it,” she added. “It’s always a good thing to know because you can actually save somebody’s life.”

Want to be a lifeguard? Visit the city’s website here.

Playing Fields, not Killing Fields is an Inquirer collaboration with Temple’s Claire Smith Center for Sports Media and The Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, to produce a series examining the current state of Philadelphia’s youth recreation infrastructure and programs. The project will explore the challenges and solutions to sports serving as a viable response to gun violence and an engine to revitalize city neighborhoods.