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| Kidd Brewer, athletic
facilities not able to compete |
Allie
Woods
Sports Beat |
Special to the AppalachianAn arial view of Washington-Grizzly
Stadium, home of the University of Montana Grizzlies. Montana
won a national championship last season
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The pounding of a volleyball,
a basketball and the unmistakable ping of an aluminum bat are familiar
sounds from Varsity Gymnasium and Brooke-Kirk Gymnasium.
The problem is between varsity athletics, club
sports and the intramurals Appalachian State University students
love so much – these facilities do not provide enough space
for everyone.
“We need to investigate the possibilities,”
said head football coach Jerry Moore. “We drastically need
a new weight room, not just for football but for every sport. There
would be never ending uses for a new facility.” |
Under the new
proposal, the annual increase in student fees will be rerouted to
renovations of Varsity Gym, Kidd Brewer Stadium and Owens Field
House.
The plan includes building a soccer field behind the baseball and
football stadiums, a resurfacing of the football field and overhaul
and expansion of Varsity Gym and Owens Field House.
Owens Field House currently houses football locker rooms, athletic
weight and training room, offices for football programs and the
director of athletics.
The current facility provides no place for locker rooms for the
soccer or field hockey teams, which are the other two primary users
of the stadium.
Opened in 1962, Kidd Brewer Stadium is not among the nicer stadiums
in Division I-AA or the Southern Conference. It is also the second
oldest facility in the Southern Conference, coming in second only
to The Citadel.
Recently, Chancellor Francis T. Borkowski described the visitor’s
locker room in Owens Field House as the “worst in the Southern
Conference.”
Allen E. Paulson Stadium at Georgia Southern University opened in
1984. Paulson Stadium currently seats 18,000 people and was designed
with two expansion phases in mind. The first phase would push capacity
to 35,000, 50,000 with the second expansion.
At Wofford College, Gibbs Stadium is among the newer stadiums in
the conference, as it was opened in 1996.
Appalachian’s recent playoff opponents at the University of
Maine are confident in what they have to offer.
“If you break it down in terms of football we have one of the
better stadiums in the Atlantic 10,” said Pete Lefresne, Interim
director of athletic media relations at the University of Maine.
“It just opened in 1998 and holds 10,000 people. It’s
very comparable to other schools in our league.”
The University of Montana, which is consistently among the top programs
in I-AA athletics, recently updated their athletic facilities.
According to Renee Valley, an administrative assistant at UM, the
weight room was remodeled within the last three years. Space and
equipment have been added to make it over 7,000 square feet with
two rooms, as well as offices for the two athletic trainers. The
addition doubled the size of the weight room.
“The University is growing at a magnitude so you want first-class
things. In the long run it will help make people proud of the school,”
Moore said. |
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