Calgary SAIT Trojans adapt to athlete building closure

Calgary’s Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) sports teams are making do without a home to call their own now that its sports and recreation building is closed.

SAIT closed its Campus Centre earlier in the year to make way for a new building, but the Campus Centre Redevelopment Project isn’t expected to be completed for another four years. The SAIT Trojans, which has around 250 athletes, are making due as athletes travel from place to place for games.

Jeff Carreos, the captain of the men’s volleyball team, says it’s been an adjustment. When his team learned the building was closing, he said it was “a tough pill to swallow.”

“It’s easier on campus just to be able to hang out and go straight from class to practice,” Carreos said. “The commute is a little tough sometimes, especially with winter [starting] up now. But I think it also, in a sense, brings your team closer.”

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The Wellness Centre is still available for students during redevelopment, but the Trojans have had to find different places for their respective teams.

“We just don’t have a home gym, [we’re] always moving around, which is totally fine. And I think for the younger guys it’s a little different. Because usually you do like to get your roots planted wherever you start playing first, but definitely, everyone has experience with it,” Carreos said.

“It’s just getting comfortable being uncomfortable is the thing.”

Wade Kohmel, SAIT Trojans athletic director, says everyone was “impacted in some way” by the closure.

“They’re (the athletes) used to meeting at our front steps at COHOS Commons – the soccer teams, but it’s a different environment when you’re besides some construction, fencing, and other things of that nature,” Kohmel said.

“The physical fitness and the training that does happen, the yoga studio, things of that nature. It impacts each program a little differently.”

Before the city was hit with snowfall Wednesday, the Trojans Men’s Soccer team defended their 2021-22 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) championship title with another title on Monday.

College teams work at ‘overcoming obstacles’

The last year saw limitations for the Trojans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Kohmel, and the year before saw no athletic play. The 2022-2023 season is the first one where college play is open completely.

“It’s very busy. Restarting sports out of the pandemic was a challenge, and responding to a facility change was another challenge. So we just became part of an ever-growing group of local users trying to get more ice time, more court time, things of that nature,” Kohmel said.

Kohmel says the volleyball teams travel to a few community centres like Rally Pointe, and to the University of Calgary (UCalgary) Dino’s Varsity court to practice and play their home games.

SAIT’s basketball teams have a similar arrangement and play at UCalgary’s Jack Simpson arena. The Trojan hockey teams are playing out of Winsport arena B.

“Adapting and doing a move of this nature … I got to see the best out of people,” Kohmel said. “You have to be agile, and I’d say have permission to make a mistake.”

Carreos says it has been a challenge as there are people, fans and players alike, that live on campus and can’t take a 30-minute commute to games.

Home games typically have a section dedicated to friends and family, and alumni. Because the games are not at home, Carreos says it’s difficult with the “same feel or layout.”

“It’s a different kind of atmosphere when you have a bunch of people cheering for you instead of against you. So you hope to see more people come out,” Carreos said.

Regardless of home-court advantage or on the road, winning is more than “coming out on top,” according to Kohmel, and says it’s about teams “overcoming obstacles.”

“When you look at a facility-related challenge, that’s just another part of the experience. And that can go a long way to being competitively excellent if you choose to look at it in that matter,” Kohmel said.

“And I know, it’s a lot of work, and it takes more time. And it might take more gas and all that type of stuff. But when you’re really working on belonging to a team and belonging to something bigger, you kind of get out of it, what you put into it.”

Carreos agrees. He says it’s part of the package when athletes join a sports team.

“Going into the season, you know, it’s not going to be what maybe you’re used to in the past. But you also learn to accept it,” Carreos said. “We’ve had guys commit all the time, and we’re still committed.”

“When you get more guys on the same page, you have to talk a lot more about who’s taking who. You have to share the workload more,” Carreos said.

Jeff Carreos poses in front of the Heritage Building on SAIT campus in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. Carreos is the captain of the men’s volleyball team and is their libero. (Alejandro Melgar, CityNews photo).

While Carreos is set to graduate in 2023, he says he would like to see a “utopia world for student-athletes,” so they can have a place to belong.

He also hopes that the legacy of the Trojans will continue to be highlighted in the new building, and worries that the memories will go when it is gone.

“It’s a superstitious thing,” Carreos said. “But I really hope that SAIT emphasizes that it is a new era and that they’re going to be entering this new building. And it’s going to be good for the school and the community.”

“It’s really important to remember any community’s past. Your culture, your team culture, your past, the way you do things, and your standards down through storytelling.”

The captain says he played with many great athletes that have gone on to accomplish great things in the European circuit, and he wants to see those stories continue in the new building.

“I don’t want that to be lost with any of the new guys. Those stories need to be told, and I would love it if everyone could be remembered in that kind of sense.”

Carreos says his volleyball career has come “full circle” since he started playing volleyball at Rally Pointe Court when he was 14 years old.

“Now I’m finishing my college career there. So it’s kind of cool in that sense,” Carreos said.

SAIT has been in talks with the Trojans about setting up community spaces for the athletes at SAIT Residence.

“We plan on making some of those areas available to all SAIT students for fitness, recreation, and socializing,” said SAIT representative Jill Purdy in a statement. “With these spaces, the Trojans would have future access for their team function should they sign them out.”

The Trojans are coming off their 2021-2022 athletic season with multiple collegiate wins in cross country and men’s and women’s soccer and futsal.

The most notable was the men’s basketball team winning the title for the fifth year in a row, which came after the death of 31-year-old Trojan athlete John Smith. The Trojans honoured Smith and his number 11 on their way to the championship.