In the summer of 2008, Bakersfield College’s weight room, along with many other parts of the facilities on campus, were featured in a McDonald’s ad as a backdrop during the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Since then, that weight room has yet to change…until a proposition was made last year by BC head football coach Jeff Chudy.

The projected $200,000 facelift, which is expected to be completed “Fall 2015 [if not, sooner],” said Athletic Director Sandi Taylor, takes the weight room renovation another step in the right direction for BC.

Although it seems quite expensive, the funding for it is nearly completed and production is approximately a 12-14 week process.

For a campus that has been around for just over 100 years, it’s in pretty fair shape, but quite outdated in certain aspects.

“We’re making a concerted effort to upgrade and modernize our facilities and this is one part of that,” Taylor said.

This will revamp and benefit Bakersfield College in many ways.

For one, the weight room is currently congested with equipment that only a prison would find worthy. Getting 50 or more football players trying to work out at the same time, or a PE class trying to work out together, makes it really difficult.

Secondly, it’s another positive outlook on BC Athletics.

We have some of the nicer stadiums at the community college level – but when you go in-depth and where all the hard work goes in, it lacks some attention.

Recruiting plays a huge role, too. As unfortunate as it sounds, players nowadays care about the details. You know — the jerseys, the weight rooms, all the small things that can change a person’s commitment. However, a state-of-the-art weight room and equipment makes it hard to refuse coming to Bakersfield College.

There will be some shifting involved during the next few months around the athletics department, however.

The current location of the Fitness Center, located in the northern part of the athletics department across the women’s locker room, will become the new location for the weight room, while the current location of the weight room on the southern part of the athletics department across the men’s locker room, will become the new home to the Fitness Center.

This will give the future home of the weight room more breathing room and space to function due to the amount of space the Fitness Center currently has.

For athletics, we could be seeing more changes as well forthcoming.

“The other projects we’re talking about is a facelift on the practice fields, and down the road the stadium and track…it’s in discussion but nothing set,” Taylor added.

With those plans, and with the new outdoor theater intact and a modernized indoor theater, BC continues to put forth effort into the state of the campus.