Moorpark College Raiders Basketball

NOTE: I regret that my 200^th review is so negative, but it is fitting that it’s a college basketball review…
When I was going to Green River Community College in Auburn, Washington, I worked for our campus radio station KGRG as both a disc jockey and as a sports broadcaster. I did Gator baseball and basketball games and as a result, I got to go on some interesting road trips.
Probably the strangest place that we went to was the gymnasium on the campus of Western State Hospital, a huge mental institution in Tacoma that is not only home to the state’s criminally insane but was also the home court of the Pierce College basketball teams. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very nice gym and it was a creepy, jail-​like kind of place to watch a game. I felt gross and dirty and ugly just being in that building.
I’ve never felt that same way about another gymnasium until we went to Raider Pavilion on the campus of Moorpark College this weekend. Wow! What a dump! That is one pathetic excuse for a gym.
It was probably a decent place at one point. But somewhere along the way they gutted the top levels of seating and turned one side into a student workout area (Ventura has this as well, but not in such an ugly way) and the other side into the wrestling venue. Both sides are separated from the main gym by ugly, rickety, temporary looking half walls.
Ok, that’s understandable. Ventura County community colleges don’t have a ton of money and they’ve had to adapt facilities to fit everybody’s needs. But they should invest a little bit of money into finishing the ceiling. The brown mud coat up there is disgusting and shouldn’t be exposed, is that asbestos? If I had to use Raider Pavilion for exercise, I’d never feel healthy.
Or free — the bars on the walkways above the north basket are straight out of the jailhouse, that’s a nice touch. Not to mention the snack bar is a table near the entrance that also served as the ticket booth. There you can get sodas out of a bucket of ice and some assorted candy served to you by students that didn’t know how to add up the total or make change.
And apparently, the people of Moorpark aren’t that fond of the place either. ¾ of the crowd were rooting for Ventura College, it was practically a home game for the Pirates. Granted, the Raiders aren’t as good this year as they usually are but you would expect there to be a few Moorparkians in attendance. What the heck else is there to do in town especially when the most expensive ticket is five bucks? It must be this ugly, dilapidated, health hazard of a gym keeping people away.
The gym at Western State Hospital was so much nicer. Raider Pavilion should check itself in for evaluation.
Moorpark’s remaining home schedule in case you want to brave Raider Pavilion. All games are doubleheaders. Women at 5:00, men at 7:30…
Wednesday, January 30 vs. Oxnard
Saturday, February 2 vs. Allen Hancock
Saturday, February 9 vs. LA Pierce
Wednesday, February 20 vs. Santa Barbara