On Feb. 29, 2020, alumni ranging  from Class of 1932 to 2018  took a dip in the new Anaheim High Jon Urbanchek Aquatics Center swimming pool as part of a Leap Day Swim-A-Thon.  They joined 100-plus student swimmers, coaches, teachers, administrators and community members who attended the event to support the new swim program.

Anaheim High last had a competitive team in 1991, and the pool was drained in 2009, the same year the Alumni Association was formed. Once it was known the pool in out of operation, a “Bring Back the Splash” campaign was started with Jan Domene (’69) heading the effort as president of the AHSAA, and later, an AUHSD trustee, who unfortunately passed away before seeing her dream become a reality.

In December of 2019 the pool was christened with a naming ceremony for legendary AHS Coach Jon Urbanchek. A month later, new swim coach Denise Osorio was handed the keys, and six weeks later a team of swimmers began competing. A water polo team will be formed in coming months.

Since 2009, alumni have donated approximately $25,000 toward the Bring Back the Splash campaign. The Feb. 29, 2020 Leap Day Swim-A-Thon was the culmination of a decade of effort to  have an operational swimming pool at Anaheim High. Congratulations to all who joined this grass roots effort to bring the amazing Anaheim High Aquatics Center to life.

Finally, thanks for all the hard work by everyone involved at the AUHSD, the construction team, the AHS staff and student body who endured two years of construction and all the neighbors surrounding Anaheim High!

Water polo and swimming has been a passion of Anaheim High’s new swim coach, Denise Osorio, since she entered the pool at Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights.

Her father encouraged to join the school’s aquatics program because her twin brother was swimming playing water polo. She took to the water like a fish and, in her senior year, she won the league championship in the 100 butterfly.

She competed on the boys’ water polo team because there wasn’t a girls’ team until the following season, when she and three other female swimmers formed a team, the first in the school’s history.

After graduating from Los Altos in 2003, she attended Citrus College, where she swam and played water polo, breaking school records for most goals and assists. She was also named a scholar athlete and received Athlete of the Year.

Denise was offered a scholarship to play for New York’s Sienna College but opted to stay in California and attend Cal State San Bernardino. During this time she coached water polo at the high school level and was an official for high school swimming and water polo meets.

She graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in English and is currently a specialized instructional assistant at Anaheim High. She is married to Class of 2000 Colonist Rafael Osorio. They are living in Anaheim with their three children ages 7, 6 and 2 years old.