Walking into the Casanova Center, country music blares in the current practice facility for the Oregon wrestling team and padded walls read “Oregon Fighting Ducks.” It’s the one place the Ducks have called home for 15 seasons.
But as early as November, the Oregon wrestling team will find themselves in an unfamiliar environment, as construction will begin to turn its current home into an $8 million dollar treatment center for all Oregon teams. The facility will be equipped with state of the art hydrotherapy machines, and space will be created for Oregon’s trainers to work on athletes. The center will be home base for all of Oregon athletics, a place where they can receive the maximum amount of attention and care, which they aren’t right now, Athletic Director Bill Moos said.
“To a wrestler, a wrestling room is like their home,” head coach Chuck Kearney said. “I still have vivid memories of walking into the practice room.”
Currently the Ducks do not have a replacement room set. This puts pressure on the Athletic Department to house the Ducks until a permanent home is established.
“Right now our back is against the wall,” Moos said. “And we’re trying to find something that is adequate, and preferably more than adequate, for this upcoming season.”
There are a host of qualifications the replacement facility must have. With 30 total wrestlers, space is the number one concern for Oregon, but the Ducks must also have a facility that can sustain a controlled temperature of 80 to 85 degrees to prevent injuries that result from tighter muscles.
“Change is sometimes a little scary,” Kearney said. “The unknown of it is a little bit uncomfortable for them. We have a very nice facility right now.”
The current wrestling room has housed the Ducks since the Casanova Center was built in 1991. The marked and scuffed yellow mats are in use five days a week in the offseason – usually with individuals working out from 7 or 8 in the morning to 7 or 8 in the evening. The Ducks also practice twice daily during the season.
But change also could lead to bigger and better things for the Ducks.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to find a very good temporary space for them,” Moos said. “The prospects of a state of the art facility will be in place, and that would come with ground-breaking.”
The wrestling team could be housed within the Oregon arena project on the horizon. The purpose of the arena project is to replace McArthur Court as well as to create a new facility for Oregon athletics. The wrestling team will compete in an auxiliary gym, but some ideas have also placed a practice facility inside the arena. The problem is, the Oregon arena project plans are realistically years away from completion, leaving the Ducks in a temporary home in the meantime, Moos said.
Without a permanent home, Oregon’s ability to lure top-caliber recruits may also be hindered, although the Ducks have recently received a commitment from 145-pound Trevor Hall out of Battle Ground, Wash., according to intermatwrestle.com.
But the problem now is placing the Ducks in an adequate home by the time construction begins on the treatment center, which is likely to start at the end of November.
“We are also exploring the possibilities of a permanent practice facility for wrestling that would not be in the arena project,” Moos said. “Which would enable them, maybe even as early as a year from now, to have their own space on a permanent basis.”
Ducks to bid Casanova Farewell
Daily Emerald
October 24, 2006
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