Construction sends Pirates teams adrift
The Carl “Tuffy” Ellingsen Field House was razed last summer to make way for progress.
The Rogers athletic facility, named for the 1931 Washington State Rose Bowl quarterback and longtime Pirates coach and athletic director, is being replaced next year by a 2,500-seat, state-of-the-art gymnasium currently under construction.
An unenviable byproduct is that Pirates teams have been kept on the move, their coaches carrying those massive key rings distinct to school custodians that mesmerized us as youngsters.
The situation hasn’t exactly been ideal, although coaches are making do and are keeping a stiff upper lip.
The biggest disadvantage, they say, has been the inability to practice on the Shaw Middle School court where they play “home” games.
“We never can practice at Shaw because of its practice and event schedule and our wrestling,” boys basketball coach Brian Kissinger wrote via e-mail.
Despite that, girls coach Nicole Kilgore said, “I like it better. I wish we had a home gym, but it’s the first time I’ve had a block of practice without interruptions.”
Kissinger’s e-mail describing the mind-boggling litany of Rogers’ odyssey was written in late December. See if you can keep up. There’ll be a closed-book test afterward.
“We practice at the Warehouse on weekdays when school is in session, generally from 3-5 p.m.,” Kissinger wrote. “We bus down at 2:45 and bus back at 5:15. Depending upon traffic that day and other considerations we are fortunate to get 1 hour, 50 minutes of practice because the Warehouse has other paying customers who come in right at 5. We have a key to the storage room at the Warehouse for basketballs and other equipment.
“We practice at Garry (Middle School) on Saturdays and school holidays. We don’t use a bus – the players must find their own way to and from. We have keys from Garry for access, storage and to turn the lights on and off. The tricky part is moving our equipment from one venue to the next. We really have to plan ahead since they are some distance from one another.”
Kissinger said he and one assistant drive their vehicles to haul stuff back and forth. Another assistant supervises the players’ bus. “We don’t bus to Shaw since it is so close.”
Nine dates were available at the middle school. A 10th home game was played at Spokane Community College because playing twice in an opponent’s gym, wrote Kissinger, wasn’t acceptable.
“The nine games are here, there and everywhere due to Shaw’s own events and our wrestling team having their home matches there.”
Because Shaw refinished its gym floor over the holiday break, it forced the Pirates to play seven of eight recent games at their opponents.
“If we hadn’t changed the East Valley game to SCC, we would have faced nine out of 10 on the road,” read the e-mail.
Rogers’ junior varsity played only six “home” games, a couple of those at the Warehouse. The freshman schedule included 11 “home” games (“No one really knows why”) – 10 at the Warehouse and one Saturday game at Garry.
“So basically every game is a road game,” Kissinger wrote.
So much for home-court advantage. It’s enough to test the patience of Job.