Sports
sportsed@clackamas.edu
Wednesday, March 14/2012
The Clackamas P rint"/
Randall: Rundown gymnasium to receive repairs
Continued from Page 1
After Niemeyer was built,
Randall underwent a-' few
improvements itself., The
weight room downstairs tri
pled in size, new classroofos
were built on the second
floor and the waiting area
was added. These were just
some of the major improve
ments to the building. Some
more of the minor fixes have
happened over time, such
as upgrading equipment in
the weight room,, as time
went on, new sports equip
ment and of course general
upkeep and ¿’¿maintenance,.
This allows, the building and
the. classes contained therein
to be fully functional and
capable.
Randall will be receiving
some more improvements
this; year as wefl, some of
One o f the windows leading into the gym in Randall was
cracked by a stray baseball during practice.
i
which ate in plain sight. An
obvious fix would be the.;
cracked window on one of
the gym doors in Randall,
which was broken during a‘
baseball practice.
.“That’s definitely on our
list of things .tqjjix. We also
have some, a new improve
ments to make that wifl
definitely help the build
ing to function better and
more efficiently,” said Bob
Cochran, dean- of campus.
services, whd mentioned
that automated heating and
air condition was included
in the projected upgrades.
“It will allow for bettet tem-
erature controfTinside the
still in discussion.
All in all, Randall is a liv
ing legacy, of the college, and
helps to define the history
of CCC. For reasons that
are sentimental, ethical and
u ild in g .”
budget conscious, this build
Thisprojeçt. is slated to be ing will hopefully/remain
finished before graduation on ' Clackamas’ campus Tor
this year. Campus services another 40- years, maybe
also hopes to fix the water even longer. Only,.time and a
heater issues in the locker dedicated staff will tell how
room showers, among othpr Randall will stand through
projects that are planned or- it all.
The “R ” 'in Rartdall isa sig n o f the age a n d repair need o f the building, which was officially opened in 1972.
The college is hoping to do more repairs on the building this spring.
NWAACC basketball championships too cool for Tri-Cities
By John William Howard
Sports Editor
You’ve all had that experi-'
ence ; where you go to pull
into a parking spot, but a
short a car> you hadn’t seen
at first was hiding behind a
bigger vehicle, fording you
to back out and find’ another
place to park. Obnoxious,
right? It’s even worse when
i t ’s a tumbleweed.
You see, several months,
ago, I was asked to be the
official reporter for the
NWAACC basketball cham
pionships. I happily accept
ed, and the first weekend in
March, I was on my way to
the Tri-Cities, Wash, for a
long weekend qf basketball.
I picked tif> my press cre-
dentialsj^checked in to my
hotel and went to sleep;
knowing that the..rtext morn
ing would be the beginning
of perhaps the most strenu-
'pus weekend I’d' ever experi
enced. As it turns out, I- was
right.
Early the next morning, I*
made the drive to the Toyota
Center, an arena of decent
size that was obviously built
for hockey. A few relics of
the hockey roots of the arena
were still visible, despite the
fact that huge rubber mats
had been laid over the ice,
on top of'which sat a pair of
basketball courts with a mas
sive curtain separating the
two..
The games began aft? .8
a.m., and after getting out of
my car to drag the massive
tumbleweed to the nearest
island, I parked and made
my way to the sideline of
the women’s court, where
Clackamas -• Community
College and Bellevue College
were about to square off in
the "first round. Reaching the
press table that would be
a home for my laptop and
me for the next four days; I
felt the cold emanating frond
the floor and mentally' pat
ted myself on the back for
wearing my wool coat that
morning.
The first game finished
without ‘much of a hitch,
other than the fact that the
women’s side of the arena
was basically empty, as was
the men’s. f chalked that Up
to the time of day. The only
people there were the few
fans that had followed the
teams • from their respective
cities, not casual fans From
the host city itself/ Sur-e that
attendance would pick - bp
as the day continued,-! dis-v
missed the empty seats and
focused'on my’work.
The problem was, things
never really got any better.
There were a few exceptions,
such as when hast and even
tual champion Columbia
Basin ffodege played .that
afternoon, but even then
there-were plenty? of bright
orange plastic seats still
empty.
The highlight of the first
day was on the men’s side/
when the top two teams in:
the coaches’ poll and the
number one seedsTrom their
respective regions lost in the
first round. The defeat of
Clark College by Yakima
Valley „Community College
and the shocking victory
by SW Oregon Community
College over Whatcom
Community College had all
the volunteers and many of
the people who would nor
mally have been wandering
thè concourses' reenter to
watch the' finish of a- pair of
fantastic basketball games.
What that proves is- that
people will watch games for
the sport itself if the- ’p rod
uct is good enough, even if ’
they .aren’t supporting either
of ¿the teams. That begs the
question, why have the tour
nament out in thè middle of
nowhere? Wouldn’t it make
sense to rnòveit tó a more
central and more accessible
location?
| Let’s play executive direc
tor for a second here ’ and
pretend that we’re, consider
ing Portland as a new place
to host the NWAACC cham
pionships^
The first thing to fook at
is the size of the city. The
Portland metro area is almost
nine times the size of the
Tri-Cities. That means that
there are a lot more casual
fans that would be willing
to come -out and watch the.
games. It’s a -much more.vis-,
ible event when the host city,
is bigger, which could bring
in more sponsors.
Another, -.aspect to look
at is the location. The Tri-
Cities are far ” away from?
just about everywhere with
the- exception of schools
like Columbia Basin, Walla
Wallii|Community College
and Yakima Valley. Pdrtland,
however, is, .located on 1-5,
almost exactly in the, north-
south' center of „the area
that the NWAACC, covers.
Sure, teams like Spokane
Community College would
have a long drive, bu,t it
would be 100 miles less than
the SW Oregon men had’ to
travel to reach the tourna
ment this year.
Basically, I don’t see wh,at
the love relationship between
the NWAACC and Tri-Cities
is. The arena isn’t all that
great (it’s far too big, and it’s
extremely cold all the time),
the locatibn is-far from cen
tral and the big name spon
sors aren’t all that flashy. Yesy
there were several steps of
improvement this year with
theI added TV coverage at
the ' championship games,
but I would like to see a
major shift in the way things,
work. It doesn’t have to be
Portland, ,1 just shouldn’t
have to fight tumbleweeds
for a parking spot.