The E and J hallway has a fresh new look.
The Ooks updated the hallways surrounding the Athletics and Recreation office late last month to include more branding and school colours as a part of their ongoing series of renovations.
Some of the additions include new TVs for displaying team rosters, a revamp of the gymnasium concessions and the entrance to the gym.
NAIT Director of Athletics and Recreation, Jordan Richey, said the decision to modernize the area was part of the department’s effort to “refresh” the Ooks’ gameday environment before NAIT hosts the men’s volleyball national championships in March.
“It’s been about a year in the making,” Richey said in an interview with the Nugget. “We knew we wanted to do a little bit of a facelift for our area, the gym, the whole thing, since we will be hosting people from around the country … so we fundraised all these dollars to get it all done.”
“Gone are the days where we’re going to print photos, put them up on the wall. You’re just going to see the teams, the pictures and faces all rotating through there [on TVs], transitioning down into the E hallway by the gymnasium.”
The changes to the hallway aren’t the only areas that saw improvements over the summer. In 2023, the Nugget wrote a story about NAIT’s “faded and forgotten” Athletics Wall of Fame — it hadn’t been touched in years. Now, the lone row of plaques on the wall outside the gymnasium will be digitized and updated. It’s already been refreshed with a wall wrap, and Richey said a digital TV is supposed to be “going in any day.”
“There’s numerous reasons why that hasn’t been updated, but we just knew we needed to get it going here,” Richey said. “We didn’t want to do it with the old plaques on the wall, the outdated pictures on there.”
“We’ll be putting our seven nominees on there, and then we have a plan now to introduce five new nominees a year for five years.”
NAIT’s gymnasium also received a new floor with new logos, new LED scoreboards, new crashpads and more Ooks branding as part of phases one and two of the renovations. Richey says the gymnasium will be closed in December during phase three for more upgrades, such as repainting and adding decals to the walls.
“That’s going to be a big one,” Richey explained. “All the walls are going to be done, so all the banners have to come down. It’s going to be a big ordeal.”
“So when the students return January 5 … the gym will look completely different again.”
The first home game at the gym for the Ooks is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 3, with the men’s basketball team taking on the Keyano College Huskies.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Nugget’s September 2025 print issue. Read it online here.
Feature image via techlifetoday
