First-Class Digs New Locker Room, Offices Puts Cougars Football Team In Cheery Mood
Mike Price finally has as many gadgets and tricks off the field as he does on.
There’s the video screen that slides out of the ceiling, the remote control projector, the state of the art sound system and on and on.
“It’ll be six months before I figure all this stuff out,” he laughed, reclining in his new office.
Chances are Cougars fans everywhere are hoping the Washington State coach’s learning curve with this season’s team is much faster.
But even if Price does have to call the heavy hitters from computer services to set the timer on the VCR, the 12th-year coach has already figured out one thing - the Bohler Gym renovation has placed his team on a level playing surface with the rest of the Pacific-10 Conference.
The coaching staff is no longer working out of dorm rooms in Perham Hall. The players are no longer being shoehorned into makeshift locker rooms. The recruits are no longer being told the library is the coaching complex and then never being shown where the coaches actually do work. “There is nothing bad about the Perham dorms,” said Price. “They’re nice … if you’re 19.”
Two and a half years after it began, the multi-million dollar project is over. Well, almost. The football and volleyball programs have the only staffs who have moved into place and that is only because their sports are about to begin. The moving date for the rest of the athletic department is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 1. And, maybe by that date, the air conditioning might be working as well.
Still a couple of fans aren’t going to blow the polish off the Cougars’ new outlook.
“It just makes you feel better about coming to work,” said Price. “You get here, all this is new, everybody is right here together. The players they can just come by and see us. No one wanted to come over to Perham. They didn’t want to walk over there and if they drove they would get a (parking) ticket.”
Plus nobody wanted to run the risk of getting stuck in the narrow hallways with a pair of shoulder-to-shoulder 300-pound offensive linemen headed their way.
Then there were the Smith Gym locker rooms, where the space was so tight just changing clothes posed an injury risk.
“You were changing and you were bumping into somebody next to you and they are yelling at you to watch out,” said senior Paul Mencke. “It was just a big mess.
“You would be walking into the (old) locker room saying, `Man I wonder what UCLA is going into.”’ Mencke added “Now we are saying, `We know our facilities are as good or better than anybody in the Pac-10.”
“The locker room is a huge factor for the players,” said Price. “Before they were in a tiny, little locker in a PE gym. They couldn’t even turn around.
“All they did is they went in and threw their clothes in there and maybe took a quick shower and got out,” he continued. “Now they can spend some time, get to know each other, talk about the practice, coaches can go in there.” Price spent time touring other locker room facilities at other college and the pros before the completion of the Bohler Gym renovation. After visiting several places, he designed the Cougars’ new lockers.
“You could shower in these lockers,” he said. “Guys won’t be spending their scholarship checks for rent, they will be living in their lockers.” Farwan Zubedi did seem right a home Friday in front of his locker with his pet boa, Unique, wrapped around his neck.
Outside the locker room is a new equipment room and laundry facility. One floor up is a stateof-the-art training facility. The assistants coaches’ offices are located around the corner from the training facility. Price’s office and meeting rooms are located one floor above. “Then you walk out and play on the best practice field in America and the best new turf in America,” Price said. “Nobody in the United States has it better than us. Nobody.
“This facility is going to turn the fate of Cougar football,” added Zubedi. “ All the legit programs have good facilities and now we do. “We have no excuse not to do well,” he said.