Macalester promises to do just that with a new athletic and recreation center aimed at students, faculty and staff who want to keep in shape as well as varsity athletes looking for serious competition

by Doug Stone and Jon Halvorsen

These digital images show what Macalester's new basketball-volleyball performance gym, above, and fieldhouse, right, might look like. They were prepared by the St. Louis firm of Hastings & Chivetta Architects, Inc. The final design of the facility is not completed.

You can feel the buzz in Macalester's athletic and recreation center. At lunchtime you'll see 20 students playing pickup basketball--not one but two games--simultaneously on adjacent courts. You'll find another 15 to 20 working out on the cardiovascular machines and a dozen more pumping iron in the weight room.

In late afternoon, the men's tennis team, women's volleyball team and rugby club team are all practicing in the fieldhouse--there's plenty of room--while track athletes run circles around them on the 200-meter indoor track. And in another corner of the facility, intramural soccer teams are going at it.

You can find many faculty and staff, too, taking the time to exercise, using the large multipurpose rooms for everything from yoga to aerobics to Pilates, the increasingly popular fitness regimen.

The spirit of the physical

All of the above is far from the current reality at 1600 Grand Avenue. But it may very well become reality, starting in the fall of 2008. That's when the college's new athletic and recreation facility is projected to open. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in the second half of 2006. The three-level facility, estimated to cost $35 million, would include:

• a new basketball and volleyball performance gym with seating for 1,200 to 1,600 spectators;
• a large fieldhouse which would accommodate a 200-meter indoor track and four multipurpose courts within the infield of the track.

The first level of the facility, where students would enter, would be level with the existing fieldhouse and include the new fieldhouse, performance gym, locker facilities and training areas. The second level, which would have an entrance off Snelling Avenue, would accommodate a large fitness room overlooking the campus, club rooms, multipurpose rooms and a lounge for students adjacent to the lobby for the gymnasium. A concession stand would provide food for both spectator events and the lounge. The third level would hold a wellness center, meeting rooms, a Hall of Fame room and administrative offices for coaches and staff.

The swimming pool--the Leonard Natatorium--will remain essentially unchanged but will not be in use during construction. Plans are under way to find practice and game facilities at other Twin Cities colleges during the 18 months that Macalester's athletic facility is unavailable.

Macalester's new athletic director, Travis Feezell, is excited. Having helped oversee the building of a new athletic and recreation center at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., where he headed the athletic department for five years, he knows what a new space can do for a campus.

"One of the charges given to me as the new athletic director is to re-imagine athletics on this campus--athletics broadly conceived," Feezell says. "That's varsity sports, club sports, intramurals, organized and unorganized athletic and recreation activities. The new space lets us imagine 12 noon, or from 4 to 5 p.m. after classes are over, when anybody and everybody--students, faculty, staff--will have the opportunity to work out. We can imagine much more inviting spaces that will promote the spirit of the physical on campus."

Fitness is not just for jocks anymore. Ask Associate Athletic Director Vanessa Seljeskog. Giving tours to prospective students last spring, she expected the questions she got from high school athletes about where they would play their sports in Mac's new athletic facility.

"What surprised me was the recreational users--the students who want to work out on a treadmill, find a quiet place to do Pilates or yoga. They were the ones who were asking, 'Where can I go to fulfill my fitness needs and interests?'

"That is a sign of the times and the culture," Seljeskog adds. "Compared with when I first started here [in 1986], there is a strong interest in our student body in general to engage in recreational activities and general fitness. There's a high demand on the space and equipment we have. Students want to have facilities where they can do those activities, whether they're structured by the Athletic Department or individual activities."

Being aware of your body

Abby Christensen '07 outside the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, where she works part-time as a student manager: "The new buildings we have like the Campus Center are pleasing and make sense. The new athletic facilities will be user-friendly. They will add to the diversity of the campus." GREG HELGESON

A three-sport varsity athlete in high school in Fridley, Minn., Abby Christensen '07 gave up formal competition for intramural coed soccer and regular weight training when she came to Macalester. "I liked having strong muscles. I bench press, squat and do leg raises. I have asthma so it's harder for me to do a cardio workout and easier to do weight training. Exercise is important in lowering stress. You're here to decide your future. It's stressful. To have that outlet is helpful."

She says the plans for a new athletic and recreation center come at the right time for Macalester. "The whole country is getting more into physical fitness. We're such an aware college."

Christensen has wanted to be a doctor since she was a senior in high school. "It's a good fit for who I am with my interests," she says. "I want to take care of people. Being aware of what my body needs is important to being a doctor. If you're obese, it's hard to communicate to patients. I'm very aware of how my muscles are moving. Being aware of what I'm doing for my body when I exercise is important."

A varsity track and field athlete all four years at Mac, Ssebbaale Sseremba '05 competed for the last time at an MIAC meet last May, just hours after he graduated. Having now started a demanding Ph.D. program in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota, the Macalester physics major had to give up sports for good.

Well, not exactly. "I've graduated but I can't leave it behind--it's part of my life," says the native of Botswana. "During the summer, even when I'm not doing anything, I just feel like I need to get into the gym, I need to run. It's a part of my life that I can't let go."

Ssebbaale Sseremba '05 was a track and field athlete all four years at Mac: "You learn how to improve yourself, not only in what you do [in sports] but in daily life, to interact with other people and better yourself as an individual." GREG HELGESON

Sseremba developed tendinitis and struggled with the pain throughout his college athletic career. Yet it didn't stop him from finishing second in the triple jump in the conference in his junior year. He also worked in the Athletic Office as manager of the women's volleyball team.

He calls sports "a remedy, a place where you get relief from stress in the classroom." But it's even more: "You get to learn about other people, because you share the same interests. You form relationships with the coach and the team, and you learn how to improve yourself, not only in what you do but in daily life, to interact with other people and better yourself as an individual."

500 victories but no rest

Even though he's the most successful coach in Macalester sports history, John Leaney, who earned his 500th soccer victory this past October, takes nothing for granted.

"You never relax, thinking we're OK," says Leaney, who came to Macalester in 1986. That means he doesn't let up on recruiting and he doesn't let up on talking about how he sees the importance of a new athletic and recreation center to his and other programs.

"It will provide better training areas for athletes and non-athletes. When recruits look at us, the present situation is a real letdown vs. Carleton and other schools. We have the oldest building in the conference. It affects the perception by prospective athletes about what Macalester thinks about athletics."

Leaney argues that new facilities will "have a tremendous impact" not only on varsity athletics, but will also encourage more support of athletics on campus. And he sees new facilities making a big difference for students like Abby Christensen. "Now our facilities send the wrong message to kids who aren't varsity athletes, but who like to work out and are interested in athletics. The weight room is so small. We don't want to separate athletics, but we don't want to alienate aerobic and other users."

An amazing combination

For volleyball Coach Stephanie Schleuder, coaching at the Division III level after many years at the University of Minnesota has been a lesson in how to do more with less. At the U of M, her equipment budget alone was $40,000, she says, while at Macalester her entire budget doesn't match that.

And yet she finds it "refreshing" that athletes at Macalester, while no less competitive, have a different focus. "Classes were arranged around practice [at the U]. The opposite is true here where practice is arranged around classes. I'm continually impressed by our kids' focus on education. They have a global focus. They are so aware of what's going on in the world. That makes for interesting conversations on road trips. To have students we have with academic prowess and who can be competitive, that's an amazing combination."

Schleuder believes in creating an atmosphere for her team and other teams where "you can be successful." Sometimes it's little things. During her first year at Macalester in 1998, she bought uniforms for the team because they just wore uniform T-shirts and their own shorts. "I always think that if you can't be good, you should at least look good," she jokes.

The new athletics and recreation center will help create that atmosphere by providing modern facilities for weight training and conditioning as well as practice and games. "It will be a premier facility in the country," she says.

"But it will be as big for students as it is for athletes. It will be for health and wellness, classes, workouts for students, staff and faculty. We would like to have more activities at the noon hour. I see it as a major asset for the whole community, a statement that we believe health and wellness are a significant component of our students' education."

Doug Stone is director of college relations. Jon Halvorsen is managing editor of Macalester Today.