Dealing with life after Withrow Court

Rowing and boxing teams feel nostalgia, frustration

By Laura Fitzgerald, The Miami Student

The demolition of Withrow Court's gym last semester left about half of Miami's 50 club sports teams without a practice facility. And while each of the teams have been relocated this fall, many of the placements have proved less than ideal.

Miami's outdoor sports teams now practice on the indoor turf of the Gunlock Family Athletic Performance Center near Yaeger Stadium, while indoor sports such as fencing, martial arts, boxing, table tennis and tae kwon do, are split between Chestnut Field House and Scott Hall. Phillips and Sawyer Halls are also being utilized, said Mike Arnos of Miami's recreational sports program.

A new facility dedicated to club sports, Arnos said, would be ideal, but money and space constraints complicate the likelihood of constructing a new building.

In the meantime, many teams are stuck practicing in less-than-ideal locales, often at inconvenient hours.

"While we were able to find everybody space, it's not necessarily ideal space," Arnos said, "Right now, [the situation] lends itself to al

most no flexibility."

The rowing team is one of those most impacted by the changes.

At first, the team didn't know where their equipment was being stored or where they could hold land practices and conditioning, said former rowing team executive board member Rachel Brady.

"There was quite a sense of panic when we first found out," Brady said.

Before Withrow was demolished, the team moved their ergometers (rowing machines that allow athletes to condition on land) to an old dining hall turned multi-purpose space in Scott Hall. But at the beginning of this semester, they returned to find that the Scott Hall space was being used for textbook distribution. Members had to move the machinery again, this time to the team's boat house on Acton Lake, in order to conduct tryouts for new members. Older members of the team also had to drive underclassmen to the boat house, about a 10 to 15-minute drive.

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"Scott Hall has been an inconvenience to us," women's rowing team captain Maddie Spurlock said. "It was given to us as a solution, but [during] the main time it was given to us this year, it was not available for us to use. The space itself is not conducive to a good practice facility for the large team we have."

Spurlock estimates the women's rowing team has lost about 10 practices this season due to lack of transportation or weather, a problem that wasn't present when Withrow was still standing.

"I don't think the university wanted to give us a good space or was looking out for us," Spurlock said. "I think they just kind of shoved us into the closet."

Other teams are not feeling the pinch so strongly. The boxing team, a former Withrow Court neighbor of the rowing team, is now headquartered in the Chestnut Field House.

Boxing coach Eric Buller said Withrow had limited space and infrastructure to hang the heavy punching bags the team uses.

"You literally couldn't use the heavy bag in the back corner [in Withrow] because the beam was coming out of the wall," Buller said.

Now, more punching bags hang from a bar in the multipurpose space the team uses. They also have access to more equipment, including medicine balls, jump ropes, several types of punching bags, sleds and an outdoor track. More availability of equipment leads to a better-conditioned team, boxing team president Rahsaan Guyon said.

"It's just the equipment in general that we have access to now has been the biggest help," Guyon said. "I think we're gonna be in a lot better shape on the competitive aspect [than we were last year]."

But Guyon and his teammates have still had to make adjustments.

At the end of practice at 6 p.m., the boxing team must store all its equipment to make room for the martial arts team to practice. The loss of Withrow means the loss of a space all their own, and of a place that members could stay for as long as they wanted after practice. The boxing team also has had to cut down on the number of practices they hold, from two to one each day.

And sometimes, members of the team still get nostalgic for Withrow Court.

"It had a lot of character," Guyon said of Withrow. "It had the blood on the mats that dried up, we had all the old pictures and the old certificates from the 80s and the 90s and whatnot hung up. It takes a little bit out of the new room we have because we can't make it into a boxing room."