By Konstantine Vrazhilov ’10
THE ROUNDUP
Students can often hear longtime veterans of Brophy talk about the expansion of the campus over the years from the Robson Gym, to the Piper and Eller buildings along with the Great Hall and now, lately, the Brophy sports campus.
With the addition of the sports campus, Brophy’s midtown footprint now stretches from the Arizona canal north to Peterson Street and, with the completion of the Brophy Sports Campus, from Central Avenue to 7th Street.
This all-new facility just north of Xavier College Prep has been under construction for some time and is nearly complete.
In a few days, on April 15, Brophy students will be able to fully utilize the new facilities after an opening ceremony.
Brophy Vice President Ms. Adria Renke said construction crews have been busy putting the finishing touches on the facilities.
“The Ryan Companies have had a continuous stream of work from rolling out the artificial turf to the buildings that will be used for concession, coaches/player facilities and maintenance to laying the sod for the grass field,” she said.
According to Ms. Renke, the campus cost more than $5 million to build and was funded through Power Breakfast donations and by various donors.
Consequently, the campus will be named after no donor in particular, but will be called the Brophy College Preparatory Sports Campus, or the BSC for short.
“The Sports Campus gives coaches decent practice times,” Ms. Renke said. “Simultaneously, the grass field is large enough to hold two teams while another team practices on the artificial turf. Not to mention we still have the fields on the main campus. There’s so much more flexibility for Brophy sports.”
Many teams of all levels will be able to make use of the campus. All levels of soccer and lacrosse will make best use of the fields, according to Ms. Renke.
She also added that Xavier teams will have periodic field use as well.
The campus will have a seating capacity of about 800 people, so Phoenix College will still be necessary for varsity football games, Ms. Renke said.
According to Ms. Renke, the fate of the well-known Boreyko or “Brophy East” Sports Campus on Campbell Avenue remains to be decided. The campus will stay open for the time being for the use of its pools by the swim teams.
Plans call for a new pool to be built at the BSC, as well as a second gymnasium on Brophy’s main campus, but more funds need to be raised before construction will start of those projects, Ms. Renke said.
News Editor Rohan Andresen ’12 contributed to this report.
