Riverside is on its way to becoming an all-new sports powerhouse.
The city is developing a new sports and entertainment complex, California Baptist University men’s and women’s basketball qualifying for March Madness, and La Sierra University men’s soccer making history by winning the 2025 Great Southwest Athletic Conference regular season.
Specifically, CBU women’s basketball team will face the University of California at Los Angeles in the first round of March Madness. This is huge news because this team has moved up divisions, which will open doors for Riverside athletes to reach professional leagues.
That’s just a few of the major accomplishments from the sports communities in Riverside.
With this positive trend, Riverside City College athletes might want to stay in Riverside, where the world of sports is thriving in their own backyard.
Many athletes usually transfer to areas and universities with strong, accomplished programs in their sports, as Deporess Schletty did, a RCC football player from the class of 2022 who transferred to Ohio State University. Ohio State has one of the top five NCAA Division 1 football programs known for its elite championships, status and developing National Football League draft players.
However, according to Riverside’s press release, since the new sports and entertainment complex will feature a 5,000-plus seat stadium for soccer, football, and other field sports, two full-size multi-sport fields, and a 130,000-square-foot sports complex for other court games, there will be space for these athletes to continue to train their skills in the city with the same coaches and communities that have been supporting them.
Riverside universities will be able to scout RCC transfers because they will use the same facilities as the sports complex. This means networking and being familiar with the same training, which will be an advantage for these athletes.
Many RCC athletes probably already know the coaches at surrounding universities, and now their opportunities to grow have just become larger.
This complex will take many years to finish, but future RCC athletes might want to consider staying in Riverside when they transfer and continue to develop as athletes in a city that is growing to support them.
