On Sunday, April 21, the water polo team, which usually practices in the IM West pool every Monday through Thursday from 8-10 p.m., was informed that the pool they practiced in all season was drained for maintenance, forcing them to change practice locations.

"Our president and our board had been in contact with the pool manager, Brian (Fickies), telling them, 'Hey, there is a potential possibility we might qualify for Nationals. Can we figure something out so we can make sure we have the pool space available to us?'" kinesiology sophomore Namika Page said. "He just kind of seemed to brush it off every time."

Junior and team secretary Reese Carlson said that the team gave notice to Fickies about the team qualifying for the tournament, but he still drained the pool.

"We told (Fickies) the week before we were going to the Big Ten Tournament that we might qualify," Carlson said. "And when we did qualify (on Saturday) ... he called us that Sunday and told us it was drained. So we didn't even know."

The school has since contacted the water polo team regarding accessibility to the IM West pool and informed them of the chance to return to their usual facilities.

"They said that we could have it on May 1, which is the day before we leave," Carlson said.

Brian Fickies is an assistant director of MSU's Recreational Sports and Fitness Services and former head coach of the MSU men's water polo team. He now manages the aquatic services at IM West and claims he was "unaware" of any conversation with the team about delaying the pool's draining.

Fickies deemed the timing of the pool maintenance necessary. The procedure was already over a year and a half past due, and there was zero flexibility around rescheduling as it couldn't be held off any longer.

"We had some safety hazards with the tile, so we had to have it tiled and get everything ready for the summer semester," Fickies said. "The situation we ran into this year was due to some staffing with MSU's (Infrastructure and Planning Facilities). There's a certain vacation time that they had put in, so the whole timing had to fall during finals week."

Now, just a week before the National Tournament, the water polo team has no access to the IM West pool that they have been accustomed to all season, being forced to resort to IM Circle's pool, preparing under training conditions that are only half usable. 

Michigan State's Recreational Sports website lists the primary uses of the IM West pool as "swimming, diving and water polo competitions, lap swim, aquatic club practices and intramurals," a stark difference from the IM Circle pool whose primary uses are listed as "lap swim, family swim, sports clubs and teaching pool."

The differences only became more apparent to the team after their first practice at IM Circle, quickly realizing they would have to make adjustments that no team preparing for the National Tournament would choose to make a week out.

"I definitely think vibes were a little down … but I think we can overcome this," kinesiology sophomore Sarah Olson said. "We're going to nationals, so we got to practice somewhere."

Even though the team has to practice, concerns have been raised about how different the IM Circle and IM West pools are.

"It's not big enough to fit our needs. It's only five lanes across, and it's a shallow-deep pool, meaning half of the pool is shallow, and we can't practice in shallow water," Page said. "We need deep water, so we can only technically practice on the deep half of the pool. It's a recreational pool. It's used for child swim lessons and for older adults."

Other adjustments include an irregularly high-temperature pool and being forced to use goals that are different from the regulations the team is accustomed to.

"The goals that we use at IM West we have paid for with our own money, and we had asked to use those cages and bring them over to IM Circle and were told no," Olson said. "If we don't get our cages … we're going to be shooting way higher than we should be come game time."