Multi-million dollar athletics facilities upgrade announced with Forever Dutch launch
PELLA — The next phase in a major facilities upgrade at Central College’s A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex was announced Saturday evening.
Project costs will exceed $15 million for the initial phases of Forever Dutch, a long-range athletics facilities initiative that began with outdoor field improvements over the past two years. An expansion of P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium is a major component of the next phase, to be followed by a renovation of the existing interior of the building, constructed in 1969. P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium was the first component of the 115-acre A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex, one of the state’s largest small-college athletics complexes, and the building still serves as the athletics department headquarters.
The announcement was made in a campus celebration at Kuyper Gymnasium that included Central students and staff as well as alumni and friends. Additional initiative details, including renderings of the new construction, can be accessed via the Forever Dutch website at forever.central.edu.
Phase One provided for enhancements of outdoor athletics facilities and is largely completed. Included were new seating and dugouts at the college’s baseball field, a small section of stadium seating at the softball field, the hillside seating project at the soccer field and improvements to east-side spectator areas at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium, which now features a new main entrance, Heritage Plaza, as well as improved event vehicle access and parking.
The Kuyper Gymnasium expansion, part of Phase Two, will be more dramatic. A new south-side entrance will extend towards Independence Street, eliminating the outdoor staircase to the current lower-level entrance, improving accessibility as well as providing a more inviting face to the complex. The new portion of the building will include an expansive lobby, a new second-floor atrium, a home for Central’s Athletics Hall of Honor and an All-America corridor, a hallway that also serves as a tribute to more than 200 of the college’s elite performers.
The building will also expand to the west, taking over an area currently occupied by a small pole building that temporarily houses hitting cages and originally served as the college strength facility in the 1980s. The new construction will feature a large varsity locker room on the lower level and, on the upper level, a new wrestling room more than double the size of the current wrestling room to accommodate growing rosters. The current wrestling room will be converted to house hitting cages for softball, baseball and men’s and women’s golf.
The expansion will also include gradual replacement of aging and overtaxed infrastructure in the 45-year-old facility. Groundbreaking is anticipated later this year.
Following completion of the expansion, it’s intended that work will then quickly transition to the other component of Phase Two, the Kuyper Gymnasium renovation. Plans are still being finalized but the renovation will likely include additional locker room space, an expanded athletic training room, a new team meeting room, new recruitment space and new staff offices, as well as enhancements to practice/competition facilities. Additional work could follow as the Forever Dutch initiative encompasses a newly revised master plan for the A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex that is taking shape.
Kuyper Gymnasium’s construction in 1969 helped launch Central’s athletics program in its spectacular rise as an NCAA Division III juggernaut. Intercollegiate athletics at Central date to the 1880s, but prior to 1969, the Dutch had claimed 16 Iowa Conference titles with four All-America awards. Since then, Central has captured 11 NCAA national team championships, 152 conference titles, 32 individual NCAA crowns and 413 all-America awards. Central student-athletes have also received 21 NCAA postgraduate scholarships and 52 CoSIDA Academic All-America awards, all since 1969.
Central is a model Division III program and, in fact, president emeritus Ken Weller, who was in office when Kuyper Gymnasium was constructed, authored the original Division III philosophy.
Central president Mark Putnam said the college is grateful for the vision of Weller and other leaders in developing A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex.
“We are deeply indebted to Central’s 1960s leaders for the keen foresight they displayed in constructing P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium,” Putnam said. “For more than 45 years it has ably served a generation of students, coaches and staff who have authored a record of achievement far beyond what any could have even dreamed.”
But he noted that the Dutch program has outgrown the building, which also has aging infrastructure in need of replacement. Kuyper Gymnasium was constructed for an eight-sport men’s program with about 200 athletes. It now must serve a 19-sport men’s and women’s athletics program with 723 athletes in the past year. Team practices start as early as 5 a.m. and can run past 11 p.m. and the facilities receive heavy use by other students for intramurals and recreation. More than 94 percent of Central’s students use it regularly. In addition, some 2,000 junior high and high school students used Central’s athletics facilities last year for summer camps as well as off-season clinics. Local residents take advantage of the facilities as well.
Ignoring the building’s pressing needs is not an option.
“This is the No. 1 priority of the college,” Putnam said, noting that the initiative was unanimously supported by the college’s board of trustees.
A 13-person steering committee that includes trustees and alumni is assisting college officials with planning and leadership for Forever Dutch. Pete Cartwright ’82, Dennis Hanson ‘07H and Molly Parrott ’02 serve as tri-chairs. Other committee members include Ann (Van Hemert) Allen ’00, Mike Dahlhauser ’94, Jim Danks ’64, Vern Den Herder ’71, John Edwards ’72, Tom Koos ’86, Marc Poortinga ’98, Harry Smith ’73 and Raegan Schultz Wagner ’04.
“Their commitment, passion and insight are invaluable,” Putnam said.
Athletics director Eric Van Kley said the Dutch coaching staff is thrilled about the pending upgrades.
“Incredible people are what make the Central athletics tradition special, not bricks and mortar,” he said. “But we’ve simply outgrown facilities that were designed to accommodate 200 athletes when we now have more than 700. We are so excited and blessed that Forever Dutch will allow us to continue making such a transformational impact on students’ lives.”
Enthusiasm for Forever Dutch in fundraising efforts during the initiative’s quiet phase has been overwhelming, Putnam said, with several alumni and friends pledging their largest personal gifts ever. But broad-based support is critical to the success of Forever Dutch in what he terms a defining moment in the life of the college.
“We are deeply grateful for the leadership of those who came before us,” Putnam said. “But now it falls to us, the richly blessed, to take up that leadership mantle and establish a pathway for the future, to build on that remarkable legacy. We must stand together, with confidence and faith, reaching far beyond what we can see, just as those past leaders did 45 years ago, so that this facility may stand witness to the realization of new dreams and new achievements, ably serving a new generation of students, some not yet even born.”