TAMPA, Fla. — The City of Tampa is looking to fill much-needed lifeguard positions.
“Pools that don’t have lifeguards will have one less barrier between a person swimming and a possible incident,” said Scott Mitter.
Mitter has been a lifeguard for years.
“It has its moments where it is pretty difficult, the stress of watching people and making sure that you’re making sure that they are safe and kind of in charge of their lives, but it’s also probably the most fun job I’ve ever had,” said Mitter.
He hopes more people will join the ranks.
The City of Tampa said Parks and Rec started hiring summer seasonal aquatics employees last month and had 97 vacancies at that time.
City leaders said they will need to hire about 40 more lifeguards over the next few weeks to reach their goal.
“For the pools, if we don’t have adequate oversight from lifeguards, we sometimes have to curtail the hours or even shut pools down,” said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
Staff said the Rookie School lets teens interested in being a lifeguard take the lifeguard pre-test and know what they might need to work on to get their lifeguard certification.
Lifeguards on Monday showed exactly what makes up that pre-test: a 300-yard swim, two minutes of treading water with legs only, and retrieving a submerged, five-pound brick, then bringing it back to the pool’s edge while swimming on your back, holding the brick on your chest, and using only your legs to swim.
“Once they get through that, we basically secure them a job,” said Louis Campanello, the Aquatics Team Supervisor. “We get them signed up for a lifeguarding class, and we help them fill out an application on-site. So basically, if you show up for Rookie School and you have the willingness to do it, we’ll get you through it, and we’ll get you in one of these chairs as soon as possible.”
There are a handful of dates coming up for the Rookie School. For more information, click here.
