Friday, February 27, 2009
Video
Watch a video of the new boathouse and Rob Catloth, rowing head coach, talk about the new facility.
A dedication ceremony for the new Kansas Rowing boathouse will take place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Burcham Park.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway, Athletics Director Lew Perkins, rowing coach Rob Catloth and Student Body President Adam McGonigle will speak at the ceremony.
The KU rowing team makes use of their new state-of-the-art boathouse at Burcham Park. From left to right: sophomore Jessica Sadler from Janks, Okla., Phillipsburg junior Stacy Rachow, senior co-captain Emily Martin of Wellington, Greensburg junior Rachelle Pauly and the other senior co-captain Valerie Jackson of Logan.
Graphic by Rachael Gray
The varsity and club rowing teams recently moved into the new 16,000-square-foot boathouse, which features locker rooms, a training facility, study area, boat-repair area and bays that will hold 35 boats. Construction on the boathouse began last March. In 2006, the student body approved a fee increase to help fund the construction of the new building.
McGonigle said he would speak about the effect students had on making the boathouse a reality.
“I’m going to speak about the incredible amount of good we can do for the University when the students work with the administration,” McGonigle said. “Students supported this and the Athletics Department supported this, and it showed that both can step up to get something done.”
Although the $6 million boathouse is complete, the $15 per semester student fee will not expire until the fall of 2011. The fee is reimbursing the Athletics Department for the expense.
Katie Brosious, Roanoke, Texas, senior rower, said she remembered standing outside Wescoe Hall as a freshman trying to get votes for the student referendum. She said the boathouse was a huge step for the University and the rowing teams.
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Who: Public, administration and members of the rowing team What: Dedication and open house for the new boathouse When: Open house from 1-4 p.m. Dedication at 1:30 p.m. Where: Directions to Burcham Park: Take 6th Street to Indiana Street. Turn north on Indiana and follow Indiana Street four blocks. Turn right at 2nd and Indiana into Burcham Park.
“There is no way it would have been built without the students,” Brosious said. “So we definitely owe them a lot and we really appreciate everything that they did.”
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said generations of students and student athletes would be thankful to the current student body for securing funding to ensure the new boathouse. He said the dedication ceremony would highlight the importance of the student vote.
“During the dedication ceremony, you’ll see a plaque, and we don’t want people to forget that the students played a huge role in this and want to make sure they get the credit forever,” Marchiony said.
Catloth, who has coached at the University for 14 years and also rowed here as a member of the club team, said he remembered dragging the boats out from a handmade chain-link fence holding the rowing equipment.
Brosious said with the new building, it was hard to remember the time before the boathouse.
“We’d be out here at six in the morning freezing having to stand outside; now we can come in and take a shower and go to the bathroom instead of in a port-a-potty,” Brosious said. “Our trainer worked out of a van and now we have an actual training room. It’s like you don’t even remember that now that we’re here.”
Cathloth said the boathouse would make day-to-day operations more enjoyable for the coaches, student athletes, and students on the club team. Catloth also said the boathouse was important to the University in general.
“I think one of the things that Dr. Hemenway’s tried to do — and then bringing in Lew — is make academics, athletics, everything in the University top-notch,” Catloth said. “They’re trying to be a top 25 institution, and this is a piece of that puzzle.”
The event is open to the public and tours will be offered from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.
— —Edited by Casey Miles
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Boathouse dedication on Saturday
We hear so much about mens basketball and football that sometimes it seems like the media totally ignores the other sports on campus. I understand they are popular, I love basketball and football too, and they are the moneymakers, but other athletes need a little attention now and again.
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