The Cerritos College Volleyball and Wrestling teams are entities without a home court to practice, train or compete in.

Simply stated, they are the away team even when they are the “home team.”

With construction continuing on the retro-fitting of the Cerritos College Falcon gymnasium, the volleyball and wrestling teams have sought temporary refuge in the facilities vacated by its former residents 30 years ago, Excelsior Union High School’s men’s and women’s gymnasiums.

While the school dates back to 1903, the current campus was constructed in 1924, most notably being the home to Pat Nixon, wife of the 37th U.S. President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon, and is also credited with being the film site of several movie and TV shows, including Grease II and Square Pegs in the 1980’s.

Both gyms show their age with missing ceiling tiles, inadequate ventilation, holes in the walls and working, but heavily used restrooms.

The larger gym where the Cerritos College volleyball team practices, has a newer looking floor while the wrestling facility sports a floor covered in thick padding to accommodate the wrestler’s knees and to cushion a fall.

Freshman wrestler Tyler Smith who competes at 197 lbs. for the Cerritos College team said that he thinks that the building “has character and it’s sort of the last thing on my mind.”

That’s understandable, as the team competes at the Mount San Antonio Duals meet on Saturday, Sept. 22, starting at 9 a.m. on the Mt. SAC campus.

Regarding the meet, Smith stated, “it’s the first time making my weight class since going lighter (drop in weight division).”

“I’d just like to push the pace, push it to the limit I would say, um sort of go out there (to Mt. SAC) and have fun,” Smith added.

Smith also said, “I just look forward to wrestling this year.”

Assistant coach Justin Paulsen of the Cerritos Wrestling staff ushered in saying, “We’re doing what we can with what we got, it’s a good size room and a lot better than most colleges have at this point.”

Paulsen noted, “We have brand new mats in here, we’re looking to get back into our old room back at the college (Cerritos), but we’re putting in some work here.”

Assessing the upcoming meet at Mt. SAC, coach Paulsen said, “It’ll be a good opening bout for a lot of these guys. It’ll be a nice testing ground. We can see where we’re good at, where we’re not good at.”

Paulsen expects good things from, “Rudy Delgado at 133 (pounds), our heavyweight Weston and our 197 pounder (Tyler Smith) should be able to go out and show it.”

Sophomore liberal arts major and Cerritos College wrestling team member Miguel Peralta said, “It’s old, but we pretty much work with what we have.“

Peralta added, “the warm weather inside really helps us cut weight.”

On the other side of campus in the former men’s gym, Cerritos College volleyball associate coach Gay Brokenbaugh simply said, “It’s home right now.“

Cerritos College volleyball player Jessica Peralta (no relation to Miguel Peralta) said, “It sucks,” referring to using the former men’s gym as their training facility.

Teammate Dominique Amaya commented, “It’s ghetto.”

Hitter Jasmine Mitchell chided, ”It’s trashy, but it’s junky too.”

The sediment regarding the facilities, or lack there of, were decidedly different as they pertained to the views of the players versus the coaching staff.

The Cerritos College women’s volleyball team next game is scheduled for Saturday Sept. 22 at the San Diego City College Volleyball Tournament.