SAU gets new locker rooms

DAVENPORT -- When the St. Ambrose football team swarmed the Davenport campus last week, they walked into new digs at their Lee Lohman Arena locker room. Thanks to fundraising efforts by the athletic department and the Ambrose Club, the football and volleyball teams along with both the men's and women's basketball teams have a new home this season. It is the first time since the building was erected in 1983 that the locker rooms have been renovated.

None of the student athletes at SAU today were born when the original lockers were put in place. It is also the first time the teams will have new lockers, as the original red, metal ones came second-hand from Davenport Country Club.

Thanks to the work of the athletic department and coaches during the summer, St. Ambrose student-athletes now make their home in a state-of-the-art setting.

The new lockers are hand made from wood, and are over two feet taller then the ones they replaced. They are open to the front, with a foot locker below and a shelf above the main area. The arrangement is in the shape of a U with a community area in the middle. Each locker room also has two 27" flat screen TV's, a VCR/DVD player, and wireless internet access.

"We've been very creative with utilizing every inch of space in Lee Lohman Arena," athletic director and head men's basketball coach Ray Shovlain said. "The improvements were needed to reinforce the fact that we are striving to give the athletes physical plant improvements."

Along with the renovation of the locker room, there were two other areas of the athletic department that showed major improvements in the summer months.

The weight room was expanded to serve the need of the growing athletic programs as well as student usage, and a top of the line batting cage was purchased for the baseball and softball teams.

Not only will this give today's student-athletes a taste of the high life, but coaches hope it will also be a huge tool in recruiting the top athletes in the region.

"A locker room means a lot to a recruit since you're going to spend so much time in there," women's basketball coach Amy Eagan said. "It gives the women a place to relax. The girls that have walked through on recruiting trips already have been really impressed."

The work to put in the new locker room didn't even start until just before the 4th of July holiday. With five weeks until the football team reported to camp, head football coach Todd Sturdy, defensive coordinator Mike Magistrelli, and head athletic trainer Dean Beauchamp worked tirelessly to have the locker in place when practices started.

"There were a lot of 10-12 hour days," Sturdy said. "A lot of times (SAU baseball coach, Jim) Callahan and I would put our kids to bed and come back and work until 2 in the morning. Now it's a showcase; it shows the commitment the athletics department has to the athletic programs."

That kind of work ethic is why the project got completed, and why Sturdy says he loved spending to time to make it nice.

"The neatest thing about the project was the amount of people that took part in it, including coaches whose athletes won't even be using the locker room," Sturdy said. "It really showed the Ambrose spirit, and it lets the athletes know that the coaches are concerned about every sport being successful."

Over the past five years, St. Ambrose athletic teams have won conference championships in virtually every sport, while also placing in the top four twice in golf and once in basketball.