West Park aims to be 'premier destination' for athletic events

Even with masks on, there was a glimmer of sunshine in students' faces and spirits in the midst of the smoky West Roseville sky Tuesday afternoon. Due to the poor air quality that has blanketed Northern California over the past several weeks, a few dozen student-athletes working out in designated pods finally got to enjoy the new Placer County jewel that is West Park High School. Panthers head football coach Jason Tenner and his staff were forced indoors to run their program's regular conditioning activities, but it gave the freshman and sophomore Panther football hopefuls a long-awaited crack at the school's pristine gymnasium. "Unbelievable," said sophomore lineman Braden Shinaut, who transferred to West Park after spending his freshman year at Woodcreek. "That weight room in there, that's top level. There were multiple reasons to transfer, but this was just extra." The facilities at West Park would be impressive even if it were a college campus. Tenner's classroom sits on the third story of one of the main instruction buildings and includes a balcony with a view of the 4,500-seat football stadium. "I come here every day and I'm still speechless," Tenner said. The separate all-weather track and field venue allows for the football bleachers to be in closer proximity to the field. "I think it's gonna be a tremendous home-field advantage for us because it's probably gonna freak people out when they come here," Tenner said. "We've got everything you could possibly need. Now we've just got to go to work and make that vision a reality." Like all other schools in California, West Park will have to wait until at least January for that vision to be put in motion. Making sure prospective student-athletes stay in shape in the meantime is just one of the challenges West Park has endured during the COVID-19 struggle. "Every school has its own problems and issues right now," Tenner said. "Ours just happens to be that we're opening up a brand new school in the middle of a pandemic." Tenner said while West Park opened with total distance learning, students could potentially set foot for on-campus instruction as early as October. Nearly 600 freshmen and sophomores are enrolled in the school's inaugural academic year with expectations of well over 2,000 by the time all four classes are implemented. But the prospect of what the future holds for Panther athletics is what has West Park coaches eager for competition. Panther Arena is a multi-level and multi-use gymnasium with a secondary basketball court that will double as the Panthers' wrestling home. "This is gonna be a premier destination for events," Tenner said. "I feel like we're gonna be able to host bowl games if CIF wanted to host a bowl game here for the smaller schools. I think it's gonna be a great venue for that. You talk about basketball tournaments, wrestling tournaments. Our wrestling coach and I took a walk in here and he was salivating." On Sept. 1, MaxPreps featured West Park for having one of the top 10 high school weight rooms in the country. Tenner knows it's where the foundation will be laid for future West Park success. "There's a genuine excitement for this campus and for these kids here," Tenner said. "Everybody's excited to be a Panther. Our facilities are phenomenal, and we have such a great community here."