Introducing the Ron Freeman Aquatics Center

Shortly after —Monta Vista High School’s beloved coach, athletic director and teacher—died in January, school officials decided the best way to keep his memory alive was to .

“In the Bay Area, Ron was the ambassador for youth aquatics,” said Don Vierra, who coached alongside Freeman for years.

Hawaiian music filled the air, flower leis draped necks and men donned their Hawaiian shirts in Freeman’s honor at Friday’s dedication ceremony of the Ron Freeman Aquatics Center.

“(Hawaii) was his place,” said Kriti Garg, a Monta Vista senior who attended the dedication, explaining the day's theme.

Illustrating how Freeman’s coaching style will best be remembered, members of the boys’ water polo and swim teams wore shirts with the word “intensity” above an image of Freeman, and his name below it.

"Deserving," said senior Alex Bagdasarian when asked what he thought of naming the center for his coach.

Freeman was known for discipline and organization, and took great pride in the cleanliness of the pool, Vierra said.

Choking back tears, Vierra said every time he walks on the pool deck, he is reminded of how Freeman would hose down the deck day after day to keep it clean. Freeman loved that pool, and apparently, so do the birds.

“He hated the birds. He was always devising ways to get them to poop somewhere else,” Vierra said.

April Scott, the school’s principal, laughed when she recalled how someone suggested to her that they erect a statue at the pool in Freeman’s likeness. “Nooooo,” was Scott’s response to the thought of birds swooping down to sit on the statue’s head—Freeman’s head—and pooping on him.

Better was the idea to name the aquatics center in his honor.

Freeman’s mother, Miriam Freeman Clark, and the stepfather who raised him, Kenneth Clark, said they had no idea their son was so popular; they only knew that he seemed to work all the time.

“He was always with his kids,” said his mother. “That’s what they were to him, his kids.”