Country Christian Gym

Once again, Sarah passes along another photo, this one of her home gym at Country Christian. The Bergstrom Gym was built in 2004-2005 and is named after Marilyn and Ruben Bergstrom who were instrumental in the planning and building of the facility.

Click the read more link for photos.

Country Christian went from a Yugo to a Lamborghini with the completion of the beautiful Bergstrom Gym.

The Hugo version was short, narrow and tiny. But it was certainly interesting and had character. It was barn-like in that the only seats available were in a loft about 15 feet above the floor. They did put one row of folding chairs around the bottom perimeter but if memory serves me, the spectators’ feet were often right on the out-of-bounds line.

The three-point line did go all the way around the perimeter but if you had anything over a size 10 shoe, you could not shoot a three-pointer from the corner. That is not an exaggeration.

The Lamborghini version of the Country Christian gym is a sparkling facility more closely resembling a small college basketball arena. It features over 300 cushioned individual seats and a beautiful full length floor with no extraneous lines or unnecessary markings. It has a very well-done cougar at the mid-court stripe. And old-glory lords prominently over the floor from the wall behind the players.



Of the gyms I have seen at the 1A level, Country’s gym ranks right up there with the best of them. Of course, having it built in the last 5 years gives it a nice advantage.



Country Christian is located about 19 miles east of Woodburn on highway 211 and about five miles northeast of Molalla along the same highway. It’s about 17 miles south of Oregon City after passing through Mulino.



I would consider Country Christian’s location somewhat interesting as most private schools seem to be in residential centers like Portland, Eugene, etc. Certainly Country Christian is not isolated by any means but is much more rural than other private schools that are in the Valley-10 and southern Oregon like Klamath Falls, Eugene, etc.

The school is an extension of The Country Church that I believe also meets in the gymnasium but I am not sure.

Country Christian has had recent successes on the hardwood, making their first state tournament in 2008 after winning the District 2 (Casco District) championship at McMinnville high school. Back in 1999, the Cougars secured the Casco north #1 seed after a stellar regular season but lost their two games at the District Tournament to miss a trip to Baker by one game. Last year, Country Christian fell at the hands of a red-hot CS Lewis team in the District 2 tournament championship game.

That set up a game with New Hope Christian at the Bergstrom Gym in the substate round. New Hope outlasted the young Cougars in overtime to advance to the next round.

This year, Country has played a brutal non-league schedule, playing the upper classifications to prepare itself for the post season. Though they are “only” 8-6 overall, they are 7-2 against 1A competition. There is the real story of their record.