Molly Graham is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Seton Catholic Preparatory for AZPreps365.com.

CHANDLER, Ariz. — Seton Catholic Preparatory is building a new event center to solve problems for student athletes by November 2026.

Student athletes are expected to practice either early in the morning before school or late at night after school. Jim Shewbridge, the athletic director at Seton, said the event center will provide the space for athletics to operate successfully. 

“We need it,” Shewbridge said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Between multiple basketball, tennis and volleyball teams, Seton’s McMahon gym wasn’t big enough to go around, Shewbridge said. Students were practicing at school as late as 10 p.m. to share one court.

Shewbridge said the practice schedule, equipment and gym itself needed a fix. “It was just old and outdated, really,” Shewbridge said.

The new event center will be attached to the old McMahon gym and will include a second court and designated rooms for the spiritline and wrestling teams. Jared Woods, the wrestling coach at Seton, said that without its own room, his team currently meets in the theater at 5:15 a.m. for practice.

The early practice time is especially hard on students who can’t drive themselves and rely on catching a ride from their parents, Woods said. The event center will allow wrestling to meet after school making practice more accessible for athletes interested in joining the team.

“I think it’ll be inviting for more students to participate in wrestling,” Woods said. “I feel as if, being so early, it’s often hard to get kids up that early.”

Woods said the new wrestling room will be big enough to add more mats, a key factor in growing the team. “It’ll feel like a home for wrestling,” Woods said.

The new gym in the event center will look discrete enough to hold alumni events, Sacred Liturgy, senior brunch and more. Meanwhile, McMahon gym is getting a makeover to fix its water-damaged floor and polish its aesthetic. 

Shewbridge said that the booster club, funded by community sponsors, donated $50,000 to the project. A homebuilding company named Shea Homes gave Seton $7 million.

Catholic Education Arizona hosted a podcast with Jeff McQueen, the president of Shea Homes. In it, McQueen said the company has “been contributing, really, hundreds of millions of dollars back into the local communities that we do business in.”

“Most all of that money is singularly focused on educating our children in Catholic schools,” McQueen added. The community funding for the event center is reminiscent of the construction of McMahon gym in the 1990s. 

Victor Serna, the current principal of Seton, said it’s important to remember Seton’s roots and preserve the community’s legacy. 

“There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into our current gym,” Serna said. “That was quite the milestone, the accomplishment, for the school back in the ‘90s when the gym went up.”

In Seton’s “1993-1994 Annual Report,” principal Brother Daniel J. Casey said, “No one on earth is more supportive or generous than the people of the Seton Catholic High School Community.” 

“That’s part of the Seton spirit,” Serna said. “When someone’s in need, or when the school’s in need, the community does rally around them or around the school to do their part to just make it better.”