William Boyce Thompson Field House Opens
The crowd watched intently as rows of crimson-clad track and field athletes warmed up before their meet. Soon a wave of over 100 Exonians sprinted down the track. The overflowing stands erupted with cheers from alumni and current students as the Academy celebrated the opening of the William Boyce Thompson Field House this Saturday.
The Field House replaced Thompson Cage, which was demolished in 2016. The new 67,000 square-foot facility accommodates a 200-meter track, four tennis courts, a wrestling room and two batting cages. Many believe that the new multi-purpose structure, estimated to cost $34 million, will revolutionize the athletic program at Exeter.
Lower David Kim looks forward to the new facilities that were unavailable in the previous gym. “I’m most looking forward to having a space to throw shot put. Right now we’re throwing in an old squash court, [where] we can’t even measure the distances that we’re throwing,” he said.
Upper Linus Manchester agreed with Kim’s sentiments. “The problem was that you couldn’t really wear spikes on [the gym floor], and if you ran on it for more than ten minutes, dust would come up, and that caused some problems with breathing,” he said.
Kim also thought that workouts on the hardwood floors of Love and Thompson Gym affected athletes’ physical conditions. “Since there’s limited space in the gym, we have to run back and forth, and we have to keep on stopping, and that’s bad for our shins—that’s how we get shin splints,” he said. “But having a circular track that’s a bigger space means we can run longer distances and it actually feels like how it’s going to be in competition.”
“I think having a space that’s ours will definitely boost the team spirit and the team sense of community because we’re able to come to an actual track everyday and workout together.”
Senior Abel Ngala, who specializes in the long jump, looks forward to getting to jump in the facility’s new sand pit, which previous athletic facilities didn’t allow for. “We haven’t had [a pit] for a very long time. Before we were just jumping on ground. We didn’t get to practice landing at all, but now we can,” he said.
For other teams as well, the Field House will be the solution to several problems they’ve had in past years. Nancy Thompson, the head coach of the girls’ varsity softball team, highlighted the insufficiencies of the previous facilities. “It was too small to accommodate a full practice; the surface and lighting were dangerous, and there was limited storage,” she said.
For wrestlers, the new wrestling facility is an enormous upgrade from the Cage, which was the previous home of the wrestling team. “Before the Cage was demolished, we had a little room up top. That room was pretty small, and if we had the size of the team we had now in there, we probably wouldn’t all be able to fit,” upper Chimenum Tasie-Amadi said.
Many student-athletes cite boosted morale as the main advantage of the new Field House. Tasie-Amadi compared the Field House to an Olympic Training Center. “One thing I do like about the positioning is seeing track down there on Wednesdays or other days during the week,” he said. “It builds a closer community seeing that there’s another team down there.”
Ngala also felt that the new facility will unite the community. “I think having a space that’s ours will definitely boost the team spirit and the team sense of community because we’re able to come to an actual track everyday and workout together,” Ngala said. “That will bring the team closer together for sure.”
Senior Menat Bahnasy believes that the Field House will welcome new players to the softball team. “[The Field House] is so new and nice, and there’s a batting cage there. I think that the new players to the team will [say,] ‘Oh my god, they actually take softball seriously,’” she said. Bahnasy hopes that because the team now has a dedicated space and batting cage, both new and returning players will feel that they have a space designated by the school for practice.
Several minor factors also make the Field House a vast improvement in athletics at Exeter. According to Freddie Brussel, the head coach of the boys’ varsity tennis team, the team has never had indoor courts before, which will now give the team more opportunity to practice and will ensure that weather doesn’t affect their practices. In addition, they will be able to run fair tryouts in a setting where weather won’t affect performance.
Last year, tennis matches had to be canceled due to inclement weather, some of which could not be rescheduled. Girls’ varsity tennis captain senior Gabby Gabel said that tennis teams will now be able to hold captain’s practices during the winter. “We’ve never really done captain’s practice before, but once we’re allowed to use the courts and once the poles and nets are set up, we’ll have them every Sunday,” she said. “I think we’ll be practicing and doing drills and maybe some matches to just get ready for the season, because I know [many] of the girls are playing other sports where they haven’t really had the chance to play a lot.” Similarly, Manchester believes that the climate control in the Field House will improve performance.
Now that the Field House is constructed and opened to the public, only one question remains: What does the Field House’s future look like? Brussel is waiting for the new track’s certification in order to ensure that if a student were to set a new record, that record would be official. He is also enthusiastic about the 169-car parking garage below the Field House which parents and community members can now utilize.
Some students, however, have voiced their concerns. Thompson thinks that “when weather is bad, sharing the space between all of the teams that will need to practice will be challenging.” Although there is much more space than there was in the Cage, Thompson believes that there is still not enough to accommodate practices for tennis, softball and two baseball teams simultaneously.
However, others remain optimistic. Brussel thinks that several teams using the Field House at once will not be a problem. “All the netting lets you have multiple sports going on at the same time. You have an outer circle when track comes down, tennis going on in the middle, and baseball practicing,” he said.
Kim expressed that with the new Field House, track practice scheduling could possibly change. “Usually we do our workouts separately in different groups. But once we have a track, everybody can do it at the same time because it’s a bigger space. Right now distance is usually in EF format with the throwers, and AB format is sprinters,” he said.
The general sentiment towards the Field House is overwhelmingly positive. “The big thing is it gives wrestling a beautiful place to practice and have their events. It gives tennis an indoor facility we’ve never had. It gives winter track probably one of the best fieldhouses outside of Boston,” Brussel said. For Ngala, who will graduate this year, he regrets that he won’t be able to enjoy the Field House for longer.
Manchester, more than anything, is grateful towards the people who made the Field House possible. “We can’t say thank you enough for [the Field House]. It’s such a great space. We’re just so honored and humbled, and so blessed to have it,” he said. “We’re really thankful for all the donors and construction crew and the architects who put this whole thing together, and everyone else in the Exeter community for allowing this to be built and for supporting us through all of it. It’s just really great to see how we can all be together and be one big family.”