Lakers Varsity Women's Hockey coach Darren Turcotte along with player Brittany Crago, look over the new dressing room that was recently opened. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
From the outside, many people may have figured the portable room located on the East side of Memorial Gardens was simply an office for engineers involved the the building’s construction project.
Well, the construction is complete and that 1500 square foot building is still there. After more than 10 months of delays due to soil sampling and a building permit - that portable building is actually now the official home of the Nipissing Lakers Varsity Women’s Hockey team.
It may look ordinary from the outside, but inside its far from ordinary.
For Lakers forward Brittany Crago, it was like walking into their own NHL room.
“Honestly, my jaw hit the floor. It was nothing that I would have expected for Darren to pull together. He had talked about the ideas, the fact that everything he said he pulled together was, like it’s so detailed - the detail in this room is just impeccable,” she said.
The room includes a spacious dressing room, rubberized flooring, dry change area, a small kitchen, 3 bathrooms, 4 showers and a coaches office.
That’s a far cry from last year when the team didn’t have a dressing room to call its own.
“We feel that the one thing missing last year was team bonding in the dressing room and having to carry your bags back and forth all the time and at this level it’s a little bit difficult because their schedules are so hectic,” said Turcotte.
“I can only imagine four equipment bags in one dorm room. But I think it’s home and they take pride in it. In March we want it to look exactly the same way it does right now and the first couple days there have been some minor adjustments but we are really happy with it.“
The former NHLer says he grabbed different dressing room ideas from rooms he sat in as a professional. He believes this room is even nicer than some of the NHL rooms he got dressed in.
“I haven’t seen a lot of rooms (CIS Women’s hockey dressing rooms) but it’s got to be one of the top rooms in not only the CIS but even in the NCAA.”
Crago believes the room will be a tremendous morale booster.
“I’m just super excited to start the year and I think this room, when people see this and see the detail that has gone into this hockey program, will be a big up and comer in the future. Hopefully this year we can make a good impact and then from years to come this is only a basis for great things,” she said.
With the building not attached to the Gardens, the girls will have to make a short journey of maybe 4 or 5 steps outside their dressing room to enter Memorial Gardens. Turcotte hopes that experience will create a “Winter Classic feel" when they step outside to enter the arena.
Turcotte and the Varsity Women’s hockey team gets to test the new dressing from this Friday when they open their pre-season schedule against York. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.
A view from the outside of the Lakers new dressing room. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
