The Harold J. Callais Memorial Recreation Center at Nicholls will open to students on Saturday, Sept. 29 after almost nine years of planning, building and paying.
Mike Matherne, director of the recreation center, said that Saturday will be a big step for the University, but the Office of Campus Recreation is ready for the “exciting” changes.
“We have tried to do a very deliberate job of painting great expectations for the building,” Matherne said. “One of the challenges is going to be for the customer service aspect to meet those expectations.”
Matherne started in 1996 as the Greek life advisor and in 1999, Matherne moved to recreation.
“It was basically just managing an intramural program with the four major sports,” Matherne said. “We didn’t have much. In our office, we had two desks and a telephone. We didn’t have a washer and dryer, fax machine or copy machine. It was pretty modest.”
Matherne said the idea for the recreation center began when the University started to identify weaknesses.
“One of the first things students realized is that other universities had an advantage over us because they have a building,” Matherne said. “So we started doing focus groups and surveys, to find out what students wanted and how much they were willing to pay.”
After students voted to fund the recreation center in 2003, the plans and bids were underway. A few setbacks delayed the completion of the recreation center, but Matherne said there are kinks to any system.
In an article in The Nicholls Worth in 2004, Matherne gave examples of other state universities’ recreation center’s building timelines and the similarities to the time it took Nicholls to fund a building. Southeastern Louisiana University and University of Louisiana at Monroe both collected money for six years before their recreation center doors opened and Louisiana State University collected for eight years before their recreation center was completed.
The recreation center, that Matherne is now director of, includes a 6,000 square-foot strength room, 42 pieces of Precor cardio equipment, two multi-purpose courts, an indoor walking track, two group exercise studios, a wellness classroom and racquetball court.
The staff for the recreation center includes Mathern, Sabrina Laurent as assistant director, Kat Harrell as the fitness and wellness coordinator, Kristen Fillmore as the intramural recreation coordinator, Rachel Dufrene as the administrative coordinator, three custodians and 70 student workers.
“Everyone will have to convey excellent customer service to match the amenities in the building,” Matherne said. “We try to hire Nicholls students first, faculty second, and everyone else third.”
There will also be roughly ten group fitness instructors for classes like yoga, BodyFlow, Colonel Core, Bootcamp, Zumba and Bodypump. These classes are free with a recreation center membership.
Intramural sports including flag football, kickball, volleyball, soccer, basketball and softball will also be held in recreation center facilities.
Current students and graduates who have paid into the fee will be able to use the building for the same amount of semesters they paid into it.
“We are going to value a semester at four months,” Matherne explained. “Fall, summer, and spring would be a year. For example, if you paid for two semesters you will receive an eight-month pass to use the facility. We try to emphasize that these passes will be for Nicholls graduates only.”
For more information visit www.nicholls.edu/recreation.