Plans Progress for Indoor Practice Facility

Dartmouth’s trustees have approved completion of design development and planning for a new indoor practice facility that would be built adjacent to the Boss Tennis Center.

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Major league pitcher Kyle Hendricks ’12 practices in Leverone Field House in this photo from 2012. There is not enough indoor practice space to meet the current demand. (Eli Burakian ’00)

The building would include a permanent artificial turf field and be constructed in a space that has for a number of years served as a lighted outdoor practice field.

The trustees’ decision, made at their fall meeting on Nov. 6 and 7, allows College planners to complete drawings of the approximately $20 million project, which would address a shortage of indoor training space during inclement weather for football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, and other sports. The project will be funded through gifts.

“This facility would provide crucial space that we are sorely lacking for our field sports,” says Athletics Director Harry Sheehy. “As the northernmost school in the Ivy League, we don’t get outdoors to practice nearly as often as our competition. This project would be a game changer.”

Dartmouth’s only existing indoor field space is in Leverone Field House, which is the primary practice and competition venue for indoor track and field. With most varsity teams training year-round and many new club sports forming, there is not enough indoor space to meet the current demand, says Sheehy.

“With 15 varsity teams, many club sports, and more than 600 student-athletes all vying for time in Leverone, it is truly bursting at the seams,” says Sheehy. “If we are able to move many field sports over to a new indoor facility, some programs that currently get little or no time in Leverone will finally get their chance.”

A tentative timeline has the College beginning to seek town of Hanover approval of the building plans in the next few months. According to the timeline, construction would begin in the fall of 2016, with completion of the structure slated for November 2017.