Mesa State College’s Impressive New Saunders Fieldhouse
Mesa State College has a very impressive new athletic center, the $41m Saunders Fieldhouse. It’s a terrific new athletic facility and swimming coach Brian Pearson is excited about the improved facilities, what it will do for his program and his recruiting. We are excited to share the news with beRecruited athletes!
Here is the article from the Grand Junction Press:
Brian Pearson says his program at Mesa State is moving toward the “haves” of NCAA Division II swimming.
Or “have-mores,” as President George W. Bush coined it.
With the expansion and renovation of the college’s four-decades-old Saunders Field House, Mesa State’s third-year swimming coach said new facilities will attract a different type of swimmer to Grand Junction.
Better ones.
“We’re going to be able to recruit (NCAA) Division I talent,” a brimming Pearson said Wednesday, among dozens of college staff and officials on hand at a groundbreaking ceremony for Mesa State’s $41 million overhaul of its athletic facilities.
Pearson’s swimmers currently get by with what he called “some of the worst facilities I’ve worked in.” Next year, they’ll be swimming at the Orchard Mesa Community Pool.
Things are about to change: The work which kicked off Wednesday will eventually raise western Colorado’s only 50-meter indoor swimming pool.
“We’ll be able to host regional and national swimming events,” he said with a smile. “This will be one of the top three Division II swimming facilities in the country.”
Saunders Field House over the coming years will see the renovation of approximately 125,000 existing square feet, plus the addition of another 200,000 square feet.
Mesa State spokeswoman Dana Nunn said the firm handling the work, Adolfson & Peterson Construction, is targeting completion for December 2009.
Aside from the pool, Saunders’ expansion will include locker rooms along with practice and competition venues for all of Mesa State’s 14 intercollegiate sports. The new building will also house Mesa State’s Department of Health Sciences, which includes an EMT program, nursing, kinesiology, radiological sciences and athletic training.
Nunn said the community will essentially have the same level of access to the new facilities: The college will sell passes for use of the new swimming pool.
Pearson and men’s basketball coach Jim Heaps are already using the new construction to lure recruits. Heaps’ days of sharing locker space with the football and baseball programs will soon be a thing of the past.
“Every recruit we’ve had on campus has been thoroughly impressed with the growth,” Heaps said. “Going around the state, there’s a lot of campuses stagnant and not growing.
“It’s an exciting time.”
Tags: Mesa State
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May 16th, 2008 at 1:12 am
[…] beRecruited SportsWrap wrote an interesting post today on Mesa State Collegeâs Impressive New Saunders FieldhouseHere’s a quick excerpt Mesa State College has a very impressive new athletic center, the $41m Saunders Fieldhouse. It’s a terrific new athletic facility and swimming coach Brian Pearson is excited about the improved facilities, what it will do for his program and his recruiting. We are excited to share the news with beRecruited athletes! Here is the article from the Grand Junction Press: Brian Pearson says his program at Mesa State is moving toward the “haves” of NCAA Division II swimming. Or “have-mores,” a […]