Get a look inside CBC’s $35 million recreation center in Pasco. Students paid for it

For years Tri-Cities students have been chipping in to help replace an aging, inadequate recreation center.

Now after more than a year of delays, the $35 million facility is nearing completion — and lives up to the hype.

The facility is modern in every sense of the word, setting students up to compete in everything from volleyball and indoor soccer to esports.

CBC athletic director Scott Rogers gave the Tri-Cities Sports Council a tour of the Columbia Basin College Student Recreation Center last week.

“I’ve been here 25 years and I never thought I’d see this happen,” said Rogers, who noted that students were able to start using the facility in late May. “This is actually a student-funded project.”

Which makes it even more impressive, because state funds weren’t used.

In 2018, CBC students voted to support the project by having each student pay $50 per quarter toward the project.

The new building replaces one that was 65 years old.

By September of 2020, the school’s tennis courts at the south end of the Pasco campus were being torn up and dirt moved.

The original goal was to have the building opened in February of 2021. But the pandemic — and the slowdown of the supply chain — pushed the timeline back to May 2022.

The result is an 80,000-square-foot thing of beauty — almost double the size of the old gymnasium and recreation center.

All CBC students have free use of the facility.

There are still some cosmetic things to be finished, and certain rooms are still being completed.

One is the school’s new esports gaming center. It has the low lighting needed for competitions and what looks like space for 12 gaming stations when it’s finished.

Rogers and his staff traveled to Boise a few months back to take in an Esports competition between visiting University of Nevada and Boise State University, trying to get a feel for the sport.

And the college already has hired an esports gaming coach.

The public can get its first look soon, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. on Sept. 22, followed by tours.

Other rec center features

• Team meeting rooms upstairs, with glass walls that look down on the main court.
• A players lounge to eat and rest between or before practices.
• A computer lounge for players to do homework.
• Plenty of office space for coaches.
• A balcony with fire table, where coaches can entertain players parents. The balcony has a good view of the CBC soccer field.
• A large upstairs fitness center, 12,000 square feet.
• Downstairs is more heavy weights for the athletes to use.
• Bigger locker facilities, and individual shower stalls.

Then there are the three large gymnasiums.

One has windows only up top, and the walls have rounded bricks in the four corners, so that futsal (indoor soccer) can be played. Students can also play pickleball in this gym, and more basketball standards will be added.

The second gymnasium is a full-length basketball court, but with no seating.

This is for either of the basketball teams or the volleyball squad to use when another team has the main gym.

This gym was going to used over the weekend when the Hawks volleyball team hosted three other schools in a tournament. Two matches can be played at the same time — one in each of the two larger gyms.

“We’ve never been able to host a tournament,” said Rogers. “We’ve not had multiple courts until now.”

Holden Court gymnasium

And finally, there is Holden Court, the largest of the gymnasiums that will have seating for 1,300.

The court is named after for CBC women’s basketball coach Cheryl Holden, who led the program to four Northwest Athletic Conference championships during her helm from 2001 to 2014.

Holden still works at the school, as vice president of Student Services.

The court is impressive enough that the NWAC approved CBC’s bid to play host to the NWAC men’s and women’s basketball championships for the next three years.

Rogers said that CBC was also going to bid for the NWAC volleyball championships in November, but he and other CBC officials were worried that some of the bugs in a new building — for instance, speaker outlets not working — wouldn’t be ironed out in time.

Locker room space for the teams — men’s and women’s basketball, and volleyball — is no longer a tight fit. Each team has their own locker room, and the player’s name on a placard over the stall is a nice touch.

There is also a visiting team locker room, as well as a locker room for coaches and officials.

RGU Architecture and Planning of Asotin was the building’s design firm, while Lydig Construction was the general contractor.

Dave Hickman, of the CBC Department of Enterprise Services, oversaw construction on land already owned by CBC.

With the new facility, as well with the recently built dormitory (Sunhawk Hall) across the street from campus, CBC should be an even bigger attraction for potential student athletes.

Student-athlete numbers have jumped from 165 to 185 starting this fall.

Eventually, the public may get its chance to use the building. But Rogers plans to slowly dole those opportunities out, as he wants current CBC students to get first crack at trying it out.

“I’ve been inundated with requests to open up the facility,” he said. “Tuesday, we’re starting with some outside basketball practice.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2022 at 11:12 AM.