Boathouse eagerly anticipated

Monday, April 9, 2007

Photo by Marla Keown

Rowing coach Rob Catloth hopes that construction on a boathouse will begin this fall. He said that the building would help the program protect its boats and aid in recruiting. Preliminary plans call for the boathouse to be built at Burcham Park, near the Kansas River.

It’s taken 12 years, but Saturday might have been the last time the Kansas rowing team competed in Lawrence without a true home.

Although there are no plans to immediately begin construction on the student-funded boathouse near the Kansas River, rowing coach Rob Catloth hoped construction would begin by the fall.

Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said the Athletics Department was working with the city to finalize plans for the project. The boathouse will be built at Burcham Park, which is city property.

“It’s very, very necessary,” Catloth said of the project. “I think it’s going to help recruiting immensely because it’s going to level the playing field.”

Catloth said nearly every other Division I rowing program already its own boathouse. He said he has wanted a boathouse since starting the rowing program in 1995.

With nine seniors graduating this year, six of whom raced on the first varsity eight in the Kansas Cup against Kansas State on Saturday, the project could help with recruiting immediately. Catloth said the team had 20 scholarships and about 75 roster spots.

The team races on the Kansas River but lacks a building for storing its boats. The boats are fenced in to keep vandals or thieves away, but the bigger problem is the lack of a roof to keep nature out. Last spring, the microburst completely destroyed a small boat. A hail storm later in the year damaged boats again.

Along with storage space, the facility will feature a medical training room and locker rooms, which Catloth said would help make the area seem more like home to the team.

“It’ll give us somewhere to meet, somewhere to get out of the weather and somewhere to call our own,” he said.

The construction will be funded by a student fee approved on referendum in the spring of 2006 to fund women’s and non-revenue sports. The department will cover any additional costs for the boathouse, a $3 million to $4 million dollar project.

pullquote

It’ll give us somewhere to meet, somewhere to get out of the weather and somewhere to call our own.

-rowing coach Rob Catloth

Catloth commended students for passing the fee increase and Athletics Director Lew Perkins for taking the initiative to look out for non-revenue sports.

“It’s been a concern for all 12 years since the program started,” he said.

Kansan staff writer Kyle Carter can be contacted at kcarter@kansan.com.

— Edited by Ryan Schneider

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