Albion College receives $500,000 grant to improve sports facilities

ALBION, Mich. — 

Albion College's Dow Center weight room and locker facilities will be renovated thanks to a grant from Charles J. Strosacker Foundation.

The grant comes on the heels of a successful five-year college fundraising effort that dramatically improved playing and practice facilities. And at a time when Albion will be accepting its largest first-year class since 2005.

Base in Midland, Mich., the foundation was founded in 1957 by one of the pioneers of the Dow Chemical Co. “to assist and benefit political subdivisions of the State of Michigan, and religious, charitable, benevolent, scientific or educational organizations.”

The $500,000 awarded to Albion will provide for a complete renovation of the weight room in the Dow Recreation and Wellness Center as well as a wall-to-wall renovation of four locker rooms serving eight different teams.

“When our student-athletes graduate, they take with them not only their memories on the field during games, but also the values and lessons of camaraderie and teamwork forged over four years, often in places like the locker room or weight room,” Athletic Director Matt Arend said in a written announcement of the grant. “This is a visionary grant that will sustain and expand on the recent momentum generated for Albion athletics, and we are grateful for the Strosacker Foundation’s lead support of this important project.”

Work will begin over the 2017-18 winter break, when the Dow weight room will receive new Olympic-style weightlifting equipment, new high-impact flooring, a new ceiling and fresh wall coverings complete with mirrors and bold Britons athletic branding elements. Next summer, the Dow’s two football locker rooms, also used by the baseball, men’s lacrosse and men’s track and field teams, will be upgraded. Larger and more functional lockers will be installed, as will new flooring and ceilings, fresh wall coverings with a vibrant Albion look and feel, and new bathroom and shower facilities. In the summer of 2019, the Dow locker room spaces for women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse and women’s track and field will receive a similar suite of upgrades.

“The locker rooms are an extension of the playing field, a place where coaches and athletes hone their team skills and strategy,” Craig Rundle, Albion’s head football coach, said in the announcement. “The importance of the locker-room environment can be underestimated, especially over the course of a season or even across a student’s four years. These new facilities will positively impact hundreds of people across Briton athletics every single day.”

The idea of supporting the daily, behind-the-scenes routines that enable Albion student-athletes to build upon their potential caught the attention of the Strosacker Foundation.

“Albion College was one of my favorite stops in my coaching career,” said Dave Arnold, chairman of the Foundation and whose successful four decades as a football coach at the professional, college and high school levels included five years as an Albion assistant coach, from 1999-2004, under Rundle. “Being part of a team is having friendships, working together and learning leadership skills that will serve our student-athletes for the rest of their lives. The College expected the best from everyone and always put academics ahead of athletics. That is the way it should be everywhere. Division III athletics is truly unique and we are excited to help with Albion’s facilities growth.”

As head coach, Arnold guided Montana State University to the 1984 NCAA Division I-AA national title, and he was an assistant on two University of Miami (Fla.) national championship teams. His son EJ Arnold, a 2003 Albion alumnus, is the assistant head coach at NCAA Division II Northwood University.

This latest grant follows the $9.7 million raised by Albion College from 2011-16 that resulted in upgrades to Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium and the reconfiguration of Alumni Field into the brand-new Davis Athletic Complex.

The college also recently received a separate, anonymous $100,000 gift that is extending the locker-room initiative to Kresge Gymnasium for the volleyball team. The fully renovated space will be ready in time for the season’s first match Sept. 8.