Press Release

Oct. 14, 2008

Volleyball, WBB Get New Locker Rooms

By Maggie Corwin '12

On Sept. 18, two days before its home opener, Northwest's women's volleyball team had a different reason to be excited. The Northwest Athletic Department recently budgeted for the Lamkin Activity Center to convert an old general men's locker room into the new location for Northwest's women's volleyball and basketball teams.

The volleyball team walked into its new locker room to find freshly painted walls, open spaces, a new conference area furnished with three leather couches and a 42-inch television. While the new conference area is something to buzz about, the new-state-of-the-art locker design is the room's best feature.

"The lockers were designed by our coaches, so they are customized to service our teams specifically," said Athletic Director Dr. Bob Boerigter. "The lockers also have a ventilation system, which turns on at night, circulating air through the lockers so shoes and clothes are dried."

Before the move, the two teams shared a space with Northwest's soccer, track, softball and tennis teams in Martindale.

"Even though we're sharing with basketball, there's a lot more space for our team because we have our own locker area," said head volleyball coach Anna Tool. "It's a more convenient location. There is a conference area to watch videos. Also, the wooden lockers look much nicer than the metal ones in the old room."

The wooden lockers come equipped with individual mirrors, outlets and overhead lighting.

"Our new lockers can't compare with our old ones," said Amy Bohnker, a senior Northwest volleyball player. "The new ones have compartments for shoes, knee pads, backpacks and a drawer for anything else."

Another advantage of the new room is the location. Unlike Martindale, Lamkin places the team closer to Bearcat Arena.

"Now, we can use the locker room not only as a place to dress and shower, but as a film room, a halftime meeting place and a place for the women to use between classes," said women's head basketball coach Gene Steinmeyer.

"It's much more convenient," said Tool. "It can be used pre-game and in between matches when the promotion show is going on."

Before the move to Lamkin, pregame for volleyball was held in a classroom near the arena.

Steinmeyer and Tool also agreed one of the biggest benefits of the new locker room is that it can be used as a recruitment tool. Before now, recruits were never shown the locker room. The new room is now toured and is very impressive on the recruits.

As a whole the new locker room will be very beneficial to Northwest Athletics. Volleyball and basketball players can frequent the couches in the conference area in their spare time. The volleyball team is very enthused about the move and is in the process of making it more homely.

"The coaches put up some motivational signs with quotes on them, but other than that we are still working on the decorating part," said Bohnker. "But I don't think it will take too long to get it decorated like the other one."