By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR
Montana State University’s new indoor athletic center is scheduled to open in less than a year. Alongside Bobcat Stadium, the Kennedy-Stark Athletic Center will feature a 300 meter track, built-in permanent field event venues and a turf field.
“The indoor athletic center [will provide] the tools and resources necessary to recruit, develop and retain top division-one student athletes. And will allow us to partner with the greater Gallatin Valley to provide access for community sports groups that have similar needs,” MSU’s Athletic Director Leon Costello said at the July 16 groundbreaking event.
MSU’s cross-country and track and field teams, along with the football program will be the primary benefactors of the new facility, which will also ease pressure on other heavily utilized athletic facilities currently on campus, like the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
“It is difficult to quantify the total impact this new indoor facility will have on our student athletes,” said Lyle Weese, the Dale Kennedy director of track and field.
“The fieldhouse is an incredibly busy building … The building is in many ways the social and entertainment space of the greater Gallatin Valley,” Weese said.
The new indoor space will allow both the track and field, and football teams to have a consistent practice space year-round, which is very important to both programs in light of the often-inclement Montana weather.
The Brick Breeden Fieldhouse currently has a 200-meter track, and Weese is very excited for the new 300-meter indoor track, which he said will greatly impact his team’s ability to train and improve in a sport where improvements are measured in mere percentages.
“There’s a fine line in track and field between success and disappointment … In a sport where we’re fighting for a tenths of a percentage improvement, it is a gigantic advantage training on a 300-meter track instead of a 200-meter track,” Weese said.
Weese explained that the larger turn radius, and fewer repetitions required to run the same distance will help limit the stress on the athletes bodies.
“This new facility will allow athletes to perform at a higher level, be less likely to be injured and overall greatly improve their student athlete experience,” he said.
The school is hopeful that this new facility will show their recruits that MSU is a place where student athletes are appreciated.
“When you receive support like this, it is so much more than the money for this physical structure, it is a program-wide feeling of appreciation,” Weese said.
MSU football coach Brent Vigen expressed excitement for this new indoor facility, as they have had no indoor practice options when playing games as late in the season as January.
“Playing into January, it became clear that an indoor facility was a need, much more than a want,” Vigen said.
The football team’s field has many times been covered in snow and ice, and temperatures so low that they simply could not practice for long enough.
Beyond the obvious benefit of shelter from the cold during their respective seasons, the track and field team and football team are excited for the countless hours the facility will be used in their off seasons.
Vigen hopes to keep his players sharp through the spring semesters, when they have a space where they can continue to practice at a high rate of speed.
“We will no longer need to count on luck, and whatever mother nature has in store for us. We can get better daily, and know what that will look like,” Vigen said.
This new facility is entirely funded by a group of over 400 donors, and will cost roughly $27 million. Langlas and Associates are the builders for the project, and 45 Architecture and Interiors helped design the building along with MSU’s School of Planning Design and Construction.
“We can’t wait to see and use the finished product,” Costello said.
“This building marks the start of a new era for our football and track and field teams and I believe for all Bobcat athletics,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado.
“The indoor athletic center will not be limited to our football and track teams, but will be available to all Bobcat varsity student athletes during daytime hours. As well as–and this is very important– to community sports groups in the evenings and on weekends,” Cruzado said.
The Kennedy-Stark Athletic Center is named for two coaches that have left a lasting legacy on MSU and Bobcat athletics.
“Dale Kennedy and Rob Stark laid the foundation for what Bobcat track and field and cross country programs are today and I am honored to say that this game-changing facility will bear their names,” Costello said.
