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Field House

THE NEED
It is widely recognized that many of high school's greatest lessons are learned on the fields and courts of athletic competition and training. As Wheaton Academy seeks to transform the lives of its students into conformity with the life of Jesus Christ, we need the laboratory space for this transformation to happen. Unfortunately, as recently as last year we had over 600 students playing on 32 teams using the same gym that was built almost 60 years ago for a student body of 175 with six teams. This means that at peak season we had to begin practices at 5:45 a.m. and go until 10:00 p.m. - not a schedule conducive to excellence on the athletic field or in the classroom.

In keeping with our mission to promote growth through excellence, we knew we needed to do better providing for our growing sports program.

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THE SOLUTION

The Heritage Field House provides space for physical education classes as well as after-school athletics. There are enough locker rooms, athletic offices and weight lifting space. There is adequate storage for all 32 sports teams and even room to add a wrestling team and provide a climbing wall for Adventure Club. We used value engineering to create the greatest amount of quality space for the lowest possible cost. We preserved our present gymnasium, lovingly called the "Warrior Dome," as our performance gym. This saved cost and space in our new field house which is used primarily for practices for indoor sports and practice during inclement weather for our outdoor sports.

The cost of the new 30,000 sq. ft. field house was $8.6M. It provides the needed physical education and sports space for the next 60 years and beyond. Please consider helping us in our efforts to help hundreds of present students and thousands of future students as we build the space where lives will be transformed.