Rio Mesa will dedicate pool to Ed Phillips

Rio Mesa High's community pool is being renamed in honor of Ed Phillips, the beloved former principal who died after suffering a heart attack during a school football game in 2004.

The Ed Phillips Rio Mesa Community Aquatics Center will be dedicated during a ceremony Mon., June 9.

The public is invited to attend the celebration, which will begin at 4 p.m. Refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

Rio Mesa High is at 545 Central Ave. in Oxnard.

The dedication, featuring speakers, music and a slide show covering Phillips' life, will begin in the school gymnasium before moving to the pool area, where the sign honoring him will be unveiled.

Brian Fitzgerald, Rio Mesa's track coach and athletic director, will serve as master of ceremonies. Speakers will include former longtime Spartan football coach John Reardon and Brett Phillips, Ed Phillips' son, a social science teacher and coach at the school.

Also attending will be Ed Phillips' widow, Teri, a special education teacher at Pacifica High, and his daughter Taryn, a substitute teacher and junior varsity softball coach at Rio Mesa.

Karen Gramacki, who chaired the dedication effort, said it's a fitting tribute because Phillips was so instrumental in the five-year fundraising drive to have the $2.5-million pool built.

The facility opened in May 2004, just six months before his death.

Phillips, who came to Rio Mesa in 1985 to teach math and coach football and basketball, was hired as the school's principal in 2000.

As principal, he was known as a handson leader who routinely put in 16-hour days and made it a point to know the first names of all 2,000-plus students on campus.

Phillips also attended most of the school's athletic events and was a fixture on the sidelines during Rio Mesa football games.

During a Nov. 19, 2004, game, Phillips told an on-site sheriff's deputy that he wasn't feeling well. He collapsed as he was driven off the field in a golf cart and died later that night at St. John's Regional Medical Center. He was 56.