SKC Bison host first ever home game

Zach Urness / Leader Staff

There is finally a home for the Bison to roam.

The long-awaited home-opener for the Salish Kootenai College men's and women's basketball teams took place last Sunday and Monday, as the newly minted Joe McDonald Health and Athletic Center threw open its doors to the public as the Bison played host to Montana Western JV teams.

"We're just very excited about it," said interim athletic director and women's head basketball coach Juan Perez. "To walk in there and know that it's our facility is something hard to describe. It's just a very happy feeling."

Perez is hoping that the new building, which is named for longtime SKC President Joe McDonald, who helped found the college, will serve as more than just a place to come and watch basketball.

"We're hoping that it becomes a central gathering place for the community," he said. "We're hoping that people, both tribal and non-tribal, will come in for powwows and basketball games and that the building can be a good thing for the community."

While the games against Western were the first time for the public to watch basketball in the new facility, they were more of a test-run to work out the bugs before the grand opening on Monday and Tuesday, when SKC will officially celebrate the opening of the gym and host Little Bighorn College.

The building itself is 35,000-square-foot multi-purpose center. Along with basketball court it also houses locker rooms, an elevated jogging track, offices, a portable stage, and a few small classrooms. The facility will be used, among other things, for intramural events, registration, graduation, powwows, and large group meetings.

The opening of the $5.5 million dollar facility had originally been delayed because of problems with the surface of the floor, but with that worked out and two days of games to correct the bugs, the stage is set for what Perez hopes will be a packed house on Monday.

"There are still a lot of people in the community that don't realize that SKC has a team that is out there playing college basketball," he said. "We're hoping that people from the community, and those who are just interested in sports, will come out and see what we're about."

Despite not having a home court, SKC has fielded basketball teams since the late 1980's when they began playing in the AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium) National Tournament. In recent years the team has become a powerhouse at the tournament, with both teams winning the title last season and the boys team having won the last three.

To prepare for that tournament the team plays an independent schedule against a mixture of tribal colleges, junior colleges and college junior varsity teams, almost all of which required the Bison to travel.

"It's tough traveling so much," said Perez. "I think with the opening of this facility we'll be on the road less because we can schedule a lot more home games. I've already talked with some of the teams we've played this year about coming here next year."

Perez said he even hopes to host the AIHEC tournament in 2009.

The next goal for Perez and SKC athletics, further down the road, is to join the Frontier Conference, which includes such schools as Carroll College, Eastern Oregon, Lewis and Clark State, Montana State-Northern and Rocky Mountain College, among others.

"I think that's something for five years down the line," said Perez. "But this facility is just as nice as most of the gyms those schools have. I think we'll get there."