Catalina Terrace Facility
Home of the MARLINS SWIM TEAM!

Celebrating 62 years of swimming excellence in 2023!

THE POOL IS NOW OPEN!

Current 2022 Members may now swim during non-CT Marlins Practice times (afternoons 3:30 to 7:30p), and up until early May, 2023. Locks will be updated just before May 6 2023, our key exchange date. Want to swim in the luxurious Catalina Terrace Pool?! Become a member of the CT Athletic Program! Memberhsips start in early May, and our Key Day is Saturday, May 6. You can sign up for membership that day, receive your key (or exchange your key if you’re a continuing member) and be ready for a wet 2023!

Updates to the CT Email lists!

CT is working with a MailChimp email contact process, to keep emails cleaner and to a minimum. Want to stay on our list? Contact us here with your email your name, address and select your email content! If you no longer wish to receive CT email, we will miss you! But, we understand. Simply do nothing, and your email will be purged from our system. There’s a whole big ocean out there for our Marlins to swim in, and sometimes you have to jettison the old flotsam in order to keep swimming. Want to be added to our email list? Send an inquiry using our contact page! We will welcome you with open fins.

CT Marlins Swim Team for Summer 2023!
We are looking forward to seeing returning swimmers and welcoming new swimmers for the 2023 season!

IMPORTANT NOTE ON PARKING: We are graciously afforded some parking space at the Northminster Presbyterian Church across the street from our pool. Please be respectful of this gift, and park south of the orange cones, closer to Hedrick Street. We need to leave the north most spaces free for the church to use for their events. Park only toward the south side of their parking lot! We need to be good neighbors, and not overuse their resource. Thank you!

Thank you for your spirit, your patience & understanding, your unflappable support, that fabulous Marlin fortitude, and we hope to see you all soon in sparkling waters!

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Welcome to CT Athletic Program

CT Athletic Program and the Marlins Swim Team carry on a 63-year Tucson tradition. Catalina Terrace was founded in 1961 as a pool, tennis, and recreation facility by the surrounding neighborhoods. Catalina Terrace is located inside the southwest corner of Tucson Boulevard & Fort Lowell Road, at 2440 E Hedrick. More location info & map here.

We have had a competitive summer swim team continuously for 63 years. Our team typically has over 140 swimmers ages 4-18 that swim 5 days a week from April through July. We compete in the SAAA swimming organization. Most of our swimmers stay with the team through high school. The overall growth of our kids and the lifelong friendships they make at CT are as important to our program as developing their swimming ability. In 2009 we formed CT Athletic Program, a 501c3 with a Youth Athletics focus, to help raise funds to renovate our pool, tennis courts, and associated facility. Pool renovation fundraising was fulfilled in the fall of 2016, and after 57 years our pool underwent a total renovation. In April 2017 we proudly cut the ribbon on a new pool; we’re proud to say that construction is complete, the pool is finished and looks beautiful!

Summer Swim 2023 is getting ready to start!
We took second place in our league! If your interested in swim team in the future, contact the team!

Recreational Swim Memberships for 2023 are available!
We offer summer and annual memberships, and the pool is easily swimmable from late March into October. We are guarded evenings June & July seven days a week, and August Friday to Sunday evenings. If you are interested in membership, review our member page for prices and contact info!

Views of our languid summer swim season, 2019

The 2023 Marlins Swim Season, on CTAPMarlins.org…

Start to Swim Practice & other known dates

Our first swim practice is will be April 10, 2023, afternoons. Practice will run Monday through Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings. There will on occasion be a modified dryland/water blended components, so be sure your kids have running shoes.

Other significant dates: CTAP’s MANDATORY work party is Saturday morning, April 1, from seven-to-noon, requiring only a two-hour commitment from each family. Key exchange for facility members is May 6, and we’re looking to have a potluck/movie night in early May. Morning swims will begin after after Memorial Day May 29, on Tuesday May 30 bright & early!

Note some calendar additions: Two Parent Meetings post-practice in April, and one Mock Meet evening May 16. The Parent Meetings (April two days TBA) are an opportunity to meet with coaches and board to learn all things CT & Swimming with the Marlins. They are scheduled on two nights to accomodate people’s schedules; only one night attendance is strongly recommended. They should last a half-hour to 45 min. The Mock Meet (May 16) is an opportunity to polish our meet hosting skills, learn new skills, give coaches and swimmers alike the chance to practice meet swimming and establish baseline swim times.

Our 2023 Marlins Practice schedule will have times for all swimmers’ age groups, and is largely ready.

Calendars and Events for Summer 2023 will be posted soon, as some dates are tentative. As we have a clearer view of SAAA schedules, they well be modified.

2023 Practice, events, meets & championships are getting closer to final, and can be found at their links: team practice, spring events, and championships/invitationals. Swim meets may still have a slight difference this year, as some teams may not be able to host yet. As schedules and calendars are updated, an email to the team will provide details, and will be mirrored at our swim meet link.

Swim-A-Thon!

The CT Athletic Program and the Marlins Swim Team Tenth Annual Swim-a-Thon is scheduled for July 1, and we hope for another huge success. Marlins come to CT on a hot, steamy Saturday morning and swim for an hour with pledges per-lap to help bolster improvements to the CT facility. The Marlin Community really stepped up in 2022 and raised crucial funds for the facility and team, and for that we are truly grateful! Come see the improvements to our changing rooms! And more to come.

Typically our Swim-a-Thon takes place on a relaxed Saturday morning in June or early July. There you would join a fine crowd of enthusiastic swimmers. With beautiful warm and sunny weather, we provide shady tents to count laps under, enjoy music, snacks and hydration and as much or more fun than Swim-a-Thons past: clear and swimmable all morning long. Families & friends catch up, donuts & bagels are broken over coffee, sun tea and eegees! See more info at our Swim-A-Thon page!

Swim Buddies!

When the season is gearing up, the CT Marlins builds a buddy list for swimmers to connect & cheer each other over the season. Look for a new list in late April. Keep your buddy in the loop & maintain those swim buddy relationships! Update your swim scrap book! (You do keep a swim scrap book, right?) Write your buddy a letter of encouragement, a poster for a swim meet, a card for invitational or championships! Send your buddy an Instagram or Tweet! Small crafts or silly simple toys are great buddy treats. Keep it cheap, but keep it meaningful—tell your swim buddy why they make the best Marlin buddy ever! Teach each other how to be an ever GREATER SWIM BUDDY all summer!!

9th Annual Groundhog Day Plunge—Postponed!

Coordinating a 2023 Groundhog Day Plunge proved complicated this year, so we’re deferring to late fall like 2021’s Turkey Day Plunge! Winter 2022 we celebrated our 8th Annual Groundhog Day Plunge on Saturday February 5, days after Groundhog Day February 2022. Six swimmers braved our 51˚ watery icebergs and plunged in (three of them under ten years old!). Our Seventh Annual Groundhog Day Plunge occurred in at Thanksgiving 2021! A roaring success!

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CT Community Outreach

CT Athletic Program provides swim team scholarships for kids with economic need in our community. We have evolved into a non-profit that supports underprivileged kids and opens our facility to organizations such as Tucson Association for Autism and Special Olympics. Past summers we provided use of our facility to kids from TMM Family Services, Casa de los Niños, Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson, and Primavera Foundation – Greyhound Family Shelter. To support our swim team and facility maintenance, we sell memberships to the local community for use of the pool, tennis courts, and grounds, continuing the 60-year tradition of Catalina Terrace being a gathering place for kids and families in central Tucson.

Thank you Tucson Conquistadors!

We are super-thankful to the Tucson Conquistadors for their support in past years! At the 2017 New Year’s they presented our board & families with their 2015 & 2016 check for funding support of our pool renovation—at the five-foot marker of the pool floor! Standing around the check Tucson Conquistadors Bill Hussey and daughter Kelsey, Tim Healy, and Matt Kaiser intermingle with the CTAP families for a once-in-55-year photo (we’re hoping it’s at least another 55 years before the bottom of this pool is dry again!).

Thank you Tucson Conquistadors!

—CTAP Fundraising Update—

Your CT Athletic Program Board of Directors is forever humbled by the Catalina Terrace Community for all their hard work, dedication, fund raising through direct contributions, Swim-A-Thon and soliciting sponsorships! Construction on the new pool started November 30 2016, and completed just before practice began in early April 2017. The pool draining/groundbreaking celebration in late November 2016 was met with a little chilly air, but nothing could cool the spirits & warm enthusiasm for jumping in and raising a golden shovel. The skies were beautiful, the water mild, and the faces all cheery. The CT Community really stepped up to the block to make this happen, and your board is deeply, deeply honored by your response.

Additionally, the final push could not have happened with out major commitments from major, major donors: some anonymous, others alumni, and still others stalwart Tucson community supporters. We strive to acknowledge all these major supporters and donors as this process evolves. Until then, thank you so much to our current and previous swimmers & alumni, and all friends of youth athletics and the Tucson sports scene! Thank you!

Other watery worlds Bill the Marlin Swims in…

Did you know the Catalina Terrace Marlins has an Instagram account!? Here it is! We’re also at Twitter and Facebook! Bill the Marlin’s a real social fish, so look for the social media buttons on the upper-right of every page. If you’re not on our roster for this summer 2022, but still desire to get involved with SAAA Summer Swim at the Catalina Terrace Marlins, visit our contact page and send us a note about swimming summer 2022!

Swim? Tennis?

The pool is guarded the warm summer months of Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend, but year ’round the facility is open for swimming and tennis for Catalina Terrace Members. Off-season it is typically quiet and peaceful and the water’s a might bit chilly, but the facility is open for CTAP Member use during all daylight hours, and closed after dark. Want to maximize your member benefits—even when it’s cool out? Light a barbecue, meet another family for dinner, schedule a family or office party for the holidays, enjoy a game of tennis under our massive Tucson Spring Sunlight—or even set up a mini-tennis tournament! Really wanna try swimming in the cold!? The cost of a guard for parties is extra—see here!

Capital Campaign Fundraising

We’ve completed our pool renovation funding drive and rebuilt the pool in 2017! In case you’ve missed it, 2016 was the last winter photo of our then-55-year-old pool bottom! Look to our Renovations page for some visuals (apologies for the terrible layout). We still have many capital improvement projects in the pipeline to bring this facility up to 21st Century standards, so if you’d still like make an additional donation, use the PayPal button at right, and/or visit our Capital Campaign page!

CT Athletic Program is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer managed youth athletics program. We’re always fundraising!

About the CT Athletic Program

The Catalina Terrace Marlins Swim Team is one of the few neighborhood swim teams remaining in central Tucson. The Marlins Swim Team is a part of the CT Athletic Program, located at 2440 East Hedrick, one block south of Ft. Lowell, just west of Tucson Blvd. The community pool and swim team were established in 1961. Most years our swim team has 145 swimmers, 4 paid coaches, and around 100 swim team families. The team is open to any youth with swimming ability, age 4 through high-school seniors. We have swimmers from all over Tucson and surrounding areas. The Marlins Swim Team sports a paid coaching staff and the facility supports paid lifeguards through the summer. Otherwise, the entire organization is volunteer driven, with an all-volunteer board of directors overseeing operations. The 2022 swim season runs from mid-April until mid-July. We are in the Cañada del Oro league of the Southern Arizona Aquatics Association. Swim meets between teams as well as league events (swim invitationals and championships) are currently unknown factors within the pandemic, but we’ll update our team as solutions are found. CT Athletic Program is a non-profit 501c3 corporation with tax-exempt status. Our mission is to promote youth athletics.