Kent Haslam equated Montana’s old athletic academic center to putting your bathroom in your kitchen. It was old and out of place.
On Friday, the Montana’s athletic director and a collection of University of Montana athletic administrators unveiled Montana’s new Grizzly Student-Athlete Academic Center, first to the media, then to the general public.
The 5,000-square foot facility includes three meeting rooms, a conference room, more than two dozen laptops, printing options, couches, study tables and a student mentor available for assistance for 70 hours each week. The total cost for the new facility located just to the north of the Adams Center was $2.5 million. All the funds came from private donations, including an anonymous $1 million donation.
UM Athletic Director Kent Haslem addresses media
“This space isn’t randomly going to get them an A in their classes. They have to take advantage of the resources we provide,” Haslam said, adding the department goal is a cumulative 3.0 grade-point average for the roughly 325 student-athletes at UM. “But (the facility) sends a message that academics are the priority and if you come here, we are going to support you and we are going to help you graduate. I never promise kids playing time or championships or points. But I can promise them if they do their part, they will graduate.”
UM broke ground on the facility roughly a year ago. MacArthur, Means & Wells, Architects designed it and Jackson Contractors Group erected it. The facility is a stark upgrade from the outdated previous facility located next to the football locker rooms in the Adams Center next to the famed tunnel that leads to Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
“(The old facility) was more like when we were down in the basement,” Haslam said, referring to a court-level room under the new facility that will eventually be renovated into a locker room. “It wasn’t all dirt, but close. It was right next to the football locker room so it didn’t smell very good. A lot of traffic. It was kind of like putting your bathroom smack dab in the middle of the kitchen.”
New Adams Center entrance
The new facility also provides a new door for fans to enter the Adams Center. Previously, the west-facing entrance were the only doors into the facility. Fans with tickets would have to battle for entrance with folks looking to purchase tickets for events like basketball games, concerts and other events. A new door to the right of the Academic Center was installed. meaning fans with tickets can enter more easily and avoid the scuffle.
The aforementioned basement will be renovated into new locker rooms, providing 5,000 square feet of extra space. The new rooms will be used for concert performers, opposing football teams and, if all goes according to plan, high school guests.
“The basement will be converted into brand new dressing rooms and locker rooms for the Adams Center. This will serve the function of when we bring concerts or live shows into the building of having this space available for them,” said Brad Murphy, the Adams Center executive director. “This will also help us bring in more events like MHSA activities, tournaments and we can put those teams in these locker room areas and we won’t have to impact our student-athletes here at Montana.
Academic center conference room
“It’s really a push from our community to start bringing high school events back to Missoula and this will be one way to sell them.”
The excavation of the foundation below the center cost UM $500,000. Murphy said the completion of the building of locker rooms will cost $1 million, money that will come from future Adams Center revenue.
Haslam said student-athlete retention is the main goal of his department. He emphasized that, despite many common stereotypes, student-athletes are actually held to higher academic standards than normal students when all factors are considered. Athletes are not afforded flexible schedules, both because of practice time and because they must take a full load every semester, Haslam said. Students cannot waffle between majors because it is an NCAA rule that each semester, an athlete must make progress towards a degree.
“There’s no taking a semester off to ski or go on a study abroad or anything like that,” Haslam said. “I feel it’s our moral obligation that we need to focus on them graduating and getting through.”
Academic center study area
Since Haslam took over as UM’s AD in September of 2012, he’s pushed a vision of expansion. Externally, he’s hired Travis DeCuire to coach men’s basketball and Bob Stitt to coach football. Internally, he’s approved and raised private funds for $18 million in facility renovations to take place over the next two and a half years. In addition to the academic center, Montana will also renovate its football and basketball locker rooms as well as building a “Champions Center” that includes a weight room and new offices for coaches.
“I’ve said all along that I really felt like our competition facilities were awesome,” Haslam said. “When you come to a football game at the University of Montana or you come to a soccer match or a basketball game, our facilities are awesome. That softball field is wonderful. But our student-athletes spend very little time in those competition facilities. They spent three or four hours a week, max. The vast majorities of their days are spent in the weight room, the academic center, the film room, the locker room, doing all the behind the scenes things. Improving those infrastructure, the support facilities are a priority.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
