By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — Glen Oaks Community College’s athletic director says there are plans in progress for athletic contests while a renovation to the gym area is completed next academic year.
In a presentation to the GOCC Board of Trustees Thursday, March 13, Athletic Director Joel Mishler said most plans for indoor athletic contests have been finalized, while some ancillary items have yet to be confirmed.
The moves come as the college prepares to renovate the athletics area as part of an ongoing $7.7 million project to renovate the south side of campus. Athletics work will include new locker room areas, including four new locker rooms, a renovation to the gymnasium itself including a new roof, two new bathrooms, a new concession area, and a re-done foyer. Renovation is expected to take until sometime in 2026 to be completed.
For volleyball events, Mishler said practices and home games would take place at the Doyle Center in Sturgis for the Fall 2025 season, while both basketball teams will more than likely play non-conference games away from home in the winter and will be seeking a practice location, something Mishler said could prove challenging alongside trying to find a facility to potentially play home games.
“They’ll have to be away games on the road unless we can find a facility somewhat close by that has college basketball lines on them; you can’t just rent a high school gym to have a college basketball game,” Mishler said. “We’re hoping they’ll probably practice at the Doyle Center, that hasn’t been closed yet but that’s probably going to be what we’re going to do.”
As for the school’s fitness center, which is used by both students and student-athletes alike and is also slated for renovation, Mishler said there have not been any plans as of yet for a stand-in during construction.
“We’re going to have some issues with the Fitness Center because it’s going to be refurbished and expanded, so I don’t know what exactly that’s going to look like, but we’re going to have to purchase gym memberships or something,” Mishler said. “We can’t expect these athletes that are coming in this fall for us to go, ‘Well, our bad, this is a construction year, so you’re just going to have to take a year off of your only 19-year-old year you have in your life that you came here to try to develop,’” Mishler said. “We’re going to have to provide something that’s viable for those people, otherwise we’re letting them down.”
Looking ahead to the renovation, Mishler also noted the gym will be needing a number of items to get up to NJCAA standards, including a resurfaced floor, updated scoreboards, updated shot clocks and updated backboards.
“If you want to be in the NJCAA and compete, these are things we’re going to have to do,” Mishler said.
Outside of construction, Mishler, who is retiring at the end of the academic year, gave brief updates on the college’s athletic programs. For volleyball, despite going 6-21 overall during the year under second-year coach Tracy Sterling, Mishler said there are 16 student-athletes coming in for next fall to the team, and that there is a “pathway” for a change in terms of their win-loss record.
For men’s basketball, the Vikings went 15-13 overall with an 8-6 conference record, with Mishler noting the team had “one of the toughest schedules in the nation.” The team made the postseason for a third consecutive year.
In women’s basketball, the Vikings went 7-20 with a 3-11 record in conference, but Mishler noted the team had a lot of close games this year and that the team notched two more wins in conference play than they did last year.
For softball, the team started the regular season on March 7 and recently returned from a trip to Tennessee to play other junior colleges, a trip they finished with an 0-6 record. Despite that, Mishler predicted the team will have a “better year than what the trip tells.”
Finally, in baseball, Mishler praised the team for starting out with a 9-9 record following weekend trips to Georgia, Tennessee and southern Illinois, and winning nine of their last 10 games at that point. Mishler praised the team for being a “bunch of fundraising fools,” noting many of their trips were possible because of the team’s fundraising efforts. The team also had the highest fall semester GPA of any of the programs with a 3.47 GPA, up from a 2.3 mark last academic year.
Finally, Mishler said the school will be inducting two former student-athletes into their athletic Hall of Fame, 1998 grad Bobby Fish and 2000 grad Mike Voyles.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
