Hiram College has had several additions to be proud of since its existence. One of its most prized additions, the Steve Belichick Olympic Training Center, is undergoing renovations and with an expected completion date of Jan. 8.
“I am really excited. It represents Hiram College well and we always have gotten some positive reviews in the past of the Steve Belichick Olympic Training Center because when you walk down there and look through the windows and can look down to the football field,” Hiram’s Athletic Director Scott Pohlman told The Weekly Villager. “Then you have this massive weightlifting area. It will be branded and will really stand out for future students when they come to Hiram to look at that facility.”
Pohlman said the project officially began on Dec. 11 and on the day before winter break, each Hiram team came to the weight room and removed a part of the floor after finishing their training session. The renovations are being done by Design2Wellness, a fitness equipment wholesaler.
The Steve Belichick Olympic Training Center was built in honor of former Terriers’ football, basketball and track & field Coach Steve Belichick, father of New England Patriots’ Head Coach Bill Belichick.
“To be associated with the Belichick family is great,” Pohlman added. “When students who want to come to Hiram take a tour of the Coleman center walk in those doors and look up top, it says Belichick. The Belichicks got it started and it is great for what it has done for our programs. All of the donors that we have, including the Belichicks, really help with our ability to develop and highlight our brand.”
Belichick’s father, Steve, met his mother, Jeannette, while attending Hiram College in the 1940s and the family has continued supporting Hiram athletics ever since. The family’s recent donation came several years ago and helped Hiram purchase new equipment including weights and cardio machines.
“It got us the type of equipment that we needed for our students, both athletes and non-athletes,” the Terriers’ third-year Athletic Director noted. “It was great. You look at all our competitors and we are talking years ago that they made that donation, but it brought us in line with everybody else.”
The Training Center was modified two years ago, with the lifting room and the cardio room switching places across the hall so that Hiram’s athletic programs had more room to do weight training as a team.
“It just gives us a lot more room to spread out a little bit so we can have more people in the weight room at one time vs when we were in the smaller area, we were limited on the number of the students that could be in there,” Pohlman said.
In addition to the students, the Training Center is also made available to the faculty and Hiram offers memberships to residents of the Village of Hiram to use the facility.
Thanks to an undisclosed donation by Kathy Coleman, a longtime member of Hiram’s College Board, rubber flooring will be installed in the entire room and Hiram’s logo and mascot will be featured underneath the squat racks.
An All-American wall on both ends of the room will also be designed, displaying pictures of the All-Americans that competed at Hiram College.
“She has done a lot for Hiram,” Pohlman said. “It is people like Kathy that are really bringing us up in the world. The Coleman Center, which is our main athletic facility, is named after her because of donationsmade by her and her family. It is our donors that truly help an institution like Hiram.”
According to Pohlman, he expects the project to be finished when the students return to campus on Jan. 8. Once back on campus, all of Hiram’s athletic teams will help install the new rubber flooring before the weight room officially reopens.
