Spaulding Gymnasium has seen some more improvements over the last few months, with more to come in the near future.
A lot of the changes that have happened recently in Spaulding are visual ones. Director of Athletics Marty Testo has made it clear that branding is a large part of the community. “I think that stuff has an impact on everybody, whether it’s current students or it’s people visiting or prospective student athletes,” said Testo.
In Spaulding, there have been a few different wraps put up on the walls to display the Keene State Owl branding. Along with these wraps, signs will be installed at the facility for directional purposes. This will be happening at the Owl Athletic Complex as well. New wraps have also been added to the men’s locker room and will be added into the women’s in the near future. Over winter break, the downstairs weight room will be getting new flooring, along with some new equipment being brought in. “It’s going to be new, it’s going to be nice, it’s going to open it up a little bit more. They’re also gonna bring in some different cardio machines that they’re gonna put upstairs,” said Testo.
Over at the Owl Athletic Complex, the fields have gotten new scoreboards and windscreens. The soccer field and turf were completed, with the hope that baseball and softball will be inished before the ground freezes. The new scoreboards have updated logos on them to stay consistent with the brand.
Testo also shared the ongoing internet project at the complex has been completed, which will help the livestreams broadcast better during sporting events.
There’s also been more improvements for a few sports teams. The Swim and Dive team has had their new starting blocks and diving board installed for the season. Some new equipment has also been purchased for the Track and Field team, including a new pit, along with more specific equipment to train with for certain events.
The Keene Ice Hockey team is in the early stages of getting an upgraded locker room. “We just went over to Keene Ice this week to meet with everybody, the city, the rink managers, so our next step is to meet with the coaches to refine that program, but that’s going to be a very speedy process as well to get that done over the summer,” said Colin Burdick, construction clerk of the works. For the esports team, their new space at the Living and Learning Commons will be complete for the spring semester.
Earlier in the year, there had been talks about the addition of a varsity weight room in Spaulding Gymnasium.
Though after engineers looked at the building and a potential room upstairs, there were structural concerns. “We don’t see a space available in the existing structure, so now we’ve pivoted, and we’re trying to determine whether it is viable to think about an expansion to the gym and where that funding would come from,” said Nathalie Houder, vice president for finance and administration. Behind the building, the stair replacement project is almost complete. “We’re going to wrap up the gym stairs, just waiting on railings and doors right now so those will be done hopefully by the time students return,” said Burdick.
Nikolas O’Connor can be contacted
at noconnor@kscequinox.com
