For the last two years, Thomas Aquinas College students have watched eagerly as the long-awaited Pope St. John Paul II Athletic Center took shape on the southwest corner of the California campus. This past Sunday, their waiting paid off as the Athletic Center — all but complete, save for a few finishing touches — had a “soft” opening for student use, with a formal grand opening and dedication planned for the fall.
“The satisfaction of knowing this would happen for years, and it’s finally happening, is amazing,” said sophomore Peter Bockrath. “I loved seeing how many people came out to play basketball and volleyball. I’m looking forward to more in the future.”
Made possible by a $15 million grant from the Fritz B. Burns Foundation of Los Angeles, the 17,000-square-foot Pope St. John Paul II Athletic Center is easily recognized by its four-story clock tower, loosely modeled after the one in Santa Barbara’s historic City Hall. The tower contains two 31-foot-high scaling walls and a 13-foot-high bouldering wall — which were put to early and enthusiastic use at Sunday’s opening.
Outside the Athletic Center, the six-lane, 25-yard waveless lap pool awaits its first swimmers, pending county certification. The outdoor tennis and basketball courts still require a finish coat, but the newly installed baseball and soccer fields are complete, along with their bleacher seating. Facing the building’s arched vestibule, the new campus picnic area will host its first College Barbeque later this spring. Yet arguably the most important detail remains to be put in place — a statue of the building’s patron, Pope St. John Paul II, which will soon be installed in a niche beside the front entryway at the base of the clock tower.
The architect for the Pope St. John Paul II Athletic Center was Anthony Grumbine (’00), principal at the Santa Barbara office of Harrison Design, an alumnus of the College, and the father of three current students. “I think back almost 25 years ago, to my days at TAC, and remember playing basketball with then-president Thomas Dillon, who used to tell us that ‘one day there will be a great gym here at TAC, with gorgeous wood floors,’” Mr. Grumbine recalls. “What a privilege it is to be part of making that dream a reality!” RCI Builders of Thousand Oaks served as the contractor for the construction project, which the College’s vice president for operations, Mark Kretschmer, oversaw. Director of Student Services Scott Benigar will manage the day-to-day operations of the facility.
Full story at thomasaquinas.edu.
Just don’t call him “the Great”. He’s not. Don’t jump the gun like some JPII enthusiasts do.
” don’t call “great”, please elaborate on why we shouldn’t call him great.
JPII didn’t address clerical abuse effectively.
Why not name the gym after St. Sebastian, patron of athletes?
It’s merely conservative Catholic virtue signaling. Why they are so enamored with JPII? I’ll never know.
“Just don’t call him “the Great”. He’s not. Don’t jump the gun like some JPII enthusiasts do.” Strange, the article does not describe JPII as “great.” But as one who would enthusiastically apply this title to JPII, I would like to respond to the original post. JPII sparked a peaceful revolution in Poland, helped dismantle the Soviet Union, preached Catholic truth all over the world, and was by all accounts a deeply holy man. I am a personal witness to his sanctity when, in 1987, he visited Dodger Stadium. When the popemobile entered the stadium, I sensed an incredible flood of the Holy Spirit deep within. I know this may sound strange but that experience ranks with two others, my entrance into the Church at Easter Vigil and my time with the Trappists, as the greatest visitation from Heaven in my life. Yes, I will call him St. John Paul II…the Great.
“Just don’t call him “the Great”. He’s not. Don’t jump the gun like some JPII enthusiasts do.”
Now I suppose you are listing all of St. Pope John Paul II’s faults in your head. How about you think of all of my faults instead. There are plenty. That way, you see, you won’t be insulting a Saint of the Church.
i like the new pool.
JPII liked to swim !
Canonizing all the post Vatican II popes was a terrible judgment. A political judgment.
The “Great One”.who….
1. violated the First Commandment by promoting religious indifferentism at the scandalous Assisi Prayer Meeting of 1984.
2. blasphemously invoked St. John the Baptist
to “bless Islam” during his visit to Jordan in
March 2000.
3. taught heresy by denying the intrinsic superiority
of the celibate / religious life over marriage.
Three strikes, your out (but infinitely more, most
certai my)
I’m trying to find the expression “certai my” in a dictionary. Is it French? I don’t understand it.