New Locker Rooms Bring ‘Pride’ to Athletic Program

Chaminade’s 2019 athletic locker rooms — the newest addition to the Silversword athletic program — and updated athletic training facility have finished construction. The training room is already in use, but athletes will move into the locker rooms in August. 

The building is located between the McCabe Gym and Henry Hall. It contains two male and two female locker rooms, along with a larger and updated athletic training facility. Each locker room contains lockers, showers, and bathrooms. 

“We revitalized the pride in our student-athletes, pride in what they do and who they represent,” head women’s volleyball coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke said. “These new facilities give us a huge pride boost. Our student-athletes have even begun to enjoy the use of their new lockers, [and] we coaches can already see their eyes light up with excitement, not only for their new facility but what the future of our programs hold, a renewed sense of belonging and pride in being a Silversword.”

The past athletic training room had enough room to fit around three athletes and two trainers at a time. If more people were in need of treatment they would have to wait outside or come at a different time, due to the space being limited. The new athletic training room has a secluded office area inside the building that gives the trainers a private space for paperwork. The new training room now has more area and tools (tables, ice baths, ultrasound, and other machines) that will allow trainers to treat the athletes comfortably. 

“For us personally, the new training room gives us the respect of our privacy and when do our office work, compared to our last room, but then it also gives the respect of the athletes to get the appropriate space that they can use to get better and to heal,” Chaminade athletic trainer Tyler “Kapono” Johnston said. “And then respects what they’re doing as a college athlete, the respect that they’ve earned. It’s special.”

These are the first CUH-only, athlete-specific locker rooms in Chaminade history. (Previously, CUH shared a locker room with St. Louis.) Athletes have expressed the need for a locker room and believe that having this new addition is a step in the right direction to improving as an overall program.

“I’m really excited to have these locker rooms because I think it’s a great space for us to get hyped up before matches and just really prepare for our opponents,” CUH Female Athlete of the Year Emma Tecklenburg said. 

The locker rooms had been in construction since August. They will be open for use starting in August for the Fall 2019 sports. The locker rooms are athlete-specific, meaning, to use the locker rooms a student must be on one of the sports teams.

“It gives Chaminade a sense of professionalism and freshness for the program,” Andre Arissol, soon to be a senior starting guard for the men’s basketball team said.