(Please Note: This event will take place during the halftime
of the men's and the women's basketball games on Thursday, February
13. This article originally appeared in last week's Telegram &
Gazette)
By Jen Toland, College Beat Writer
February 6, 2013
On Saturday, the Worcester State men's and women's basketball
teams will play their final regular-season games in Lancer Gym.
WSU's current athletics building will close at the end of the
spring semester and be torn down to make way for a $45 million,
state-of-the-art wellness center, which is scheduled to be ready in
the fall of 2015.
The Lancers will host MASCAC foe Bridgewater State in a
doubleheader. The women play at 3:30 p.m., the men at 5:30.
Numerous alums from both teams will be in attendance and be
recognized at halftime of their respective games.
“It's going to be a tremendous day,” said
Karen Tessmer, who is in her 18th season as WSU
women's coach. “There are a lot of special memories in the
gym. It's certainly a bittersweet day. We're sad to see the gym go,
but there are good things ahead for the school and the whole
athletic program.”
Paul Welcome, who sank the first basket when the
Lancer Gym opened in 1961, will take the ceremonial final shot in
the gym after the men's game. Cathy (Westall)
Kuzmeskas, the all-time leading scorer in WSU women's
history and one of the stars of the 1980 AIAW national title team,
will take the last shot after the women's game.
Dave Lindberg has spent 26 years at Worcester
State — the last 19 as head coach, four as an assistant, and
three as a player.
“Twenty-six seasons,” Lindberg said. “I don't
know if anyone else has spent as much time in the gym as me. It
certainly has a tremendous amount of memories for me. I'll miss the
smell, the humming of the lights, the comfort of it, knowing where
every dead spot is, and most of all, the memories. We've had so
many experiences on that floor.”
Both Worcester State teams are in the running to host MASCAC
tournament games, so Saturday may not mark the actual end of the
gym, but it will be special.
For the next couple of seasons, the Lancers will play their
“home” games at local colleges and high schools, so it
will be a transition period as they wait for the new gym to
open.
“It will be a tough stretch,” Tessmer said, “but
we have to look at the big picture and that's a great facility down
the road.”
Pictured Above: Men's Basketball head coach Dave
Lindberg