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Grand View University is known for its excellent athletic programs, including the track and field team. The team, coached by Jerry Monner, is coming off a men’s indoor conference championship, in which they won by over 35 points. This is just one example of how GV’s athletics teams have worked with what they have, even though many other schools in the NAIA have much larger modern athletic facilities.

A typical practice for Monner’s team takes place in the fieldhouse inside of the Johnson Wellness Center. The team utilizes the upstairs 160-meter track. The track is three lanes wide and features extremely tight turns that make it difficult for athletes to maintain top speed without injuring themselves.

The track itself is not closed off to the public during practice, so runners have to dodge and weave around pedestrians crossing the track.

“Running 90-degree corners at full speed, you know we have all sorts of injuries with lower legs, shins, knees, that type of stuff,” Monner said. “Last few weeks we haven’t really run any laps up there. We’ve tried to go outside as much as possible. We try to pick the best day we can do it.”

Monner’s athletes voice the same concerns when it comes to their health.

“My shins are constantly on fire after practice,” said Anthony Dixon, a sophomore sprinter. “It’s just hard to always be turning when you’re trying to run fast.” 

Injuries and soreness aren’t the only downsides to not having a real indoor facility; recruiting suffers as well.

“We lose recruits all the time,” Monner said. “As far as our success, we’ve had success… we recruit kids, and it’s a successful program. But if it comes down to us and a school that has a facility, even if they have a better financial aid package here, they’re willing to pay in some instances a little bit more to go to a school that has an indoor track facility, that has a little bit larger weight room or that has a better outdoor and indoor stadium.”

GV’s Athletic Director, Troy Plummer understands the need for a facility.  

“Our biggest need for a facility is an indoor track because with an indoor track not only does it help us take care of the track team, but you have all of that space for indoor practices for baseball, football, softball, and indoor soccer and volleyball and tennis, there are a lot of options,” Plummer said. “We need practice space.” 

Plummer added, “The strain we are putting on the Wellness Center right now is incredible.”

Wartburg College and St. Ambrose University are two of GV’s recruiting rivals in the state; both schools have full-functioning indoor facilities that feature a competition-ready 200-meter track.

Wartburg’s indoor facility is 200,000 square feet that includes an indoor pool, basketball courts, a racquetball court and a climbing wall.

Haley Flaws, a sophomore sprinter on the women’s team who specializes in the 60 meter dash, said:

“It’s hard sometimes when we can’t practice a full event on our track. As soon as we get up to speed, we have to slow down, so we don’t run into the wall,” Flaws said.

GV has had success at the national level, but year after year, there is a common theme with the top teams.

“The top teams in the NAIA are either from the South that can train all year or they are teams in the Midwest that have facilities,” Monner said.

GV’s head softball coach Lou Yacinich is on the same page as Monner when it comes to the need for better facilities.

“With the way our teams are right now, I think one of the biggest needs is an indoor facility for our track and field,” Yacinich said. “I think the track and field team has grown so much and not just grown so much, but grown in a quality pace as well, that they in my opinion earned an opportunity and facility that can house them.”

But location and financial backing are two of the main issues that have prevented an upgrade in facilities.

Where GV is located makes it difficult to find a large chunk of land to begin construction. It would more than likely take relocation of other athletics facilities and parking areas. But the biggest thing holding the project back is money.

St. Ambrose’s venue, which is a little bit smaller at 80,000 square feet, includes similar amenities as GV’s Wellness Center but still has a fieldhouse that holds a competition venue. 

St. Ambrose’s facility was built in 2017 and cost a total of $21.5 million to build including equipment and furniture for the facility.

“We’d want to do a series, you know, with a lot of people involved, and depending on what they come up with as the cost, you do some sort of capital campaign and going to either alumni, friends of the university, any number people to hopefully get it financed,” Plummer said.“Depending on how the facility is set up, you also maybe have some revenue generated through it with outside groups coming to use it. In general to built it, it’d have to be a campaign where’d we say here’s what we want to build and we go out and talk to different folks about why it’s a positive thing for Grand View and the east side community and hopefully get them on board.” 

GV’s facilities are functional, and athletes make the best of what they have and they have the accolades to prove it. The idea of a bigger and greater athletic facility is one that may be unrealistic but could be here sooner than later.