MSU to build $3.5M sports shooting center
By Matthew Miller, Lansing State Journal
Michigan State University's archery team currently practices in a converted hallway in the basement of the IM West building. The Air Rifle Club hones their skills in the ballroom of Demonstration Hall.
But starting in spring 2009, they'll be practicing in what MSU is saying will be one of the best shooting sports facilities in North America and one of the largest indoor facilities in the Midwest.
Plans for the John and Marnie Demmer Shooting Sports, Education and Training Center, approved last month by MSU's Board of Trustees, call for a 23,000-square-foot building with indoor archery and small-bore rifle ranges and three outdoor archery ranges.
The center also will also have spectator viewing areas, classrooms and locker rooms.
The facility, which will be built on the southeast corner of Jolly and College roads, will cost an estimated $3.5 million, all of which has been raised through donations.
It will be open to the public. (Emphasis added. -Thain)
"What started out as a small vision became a much larger vision," said William Taylor, chair of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.
The small vision, he said, was to provide better practice and instruction space for MSU's shooting sports clubs, a facility that would allow those programs to expand and become more competitive.
The current and more expansive vision is for a facility that can be used for ROTC training, hunter safety classes, summer camps and other public programs.
MSU's School of Criminal Justice plans to use the center for firearms training, something it doesn't provide now.
Similarly, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the state Department of Natural Resources, a partner in the project, plan to use the center to train current and future conservation officers.
"When (students) come out right now, they're not certified to be able to go into a conservation officer program," Taylor said. "They'd have to go to some academy externally to finish their training.
The center, he said, will allow for the "complete life cycle" of training.
But even in the larger vision, MSU's shooting sports clubs occupy a central place.
"It's going to bring in the students that are currently going to other schools to continue their shooting programs," said Mike Gardner, adviser and assistant coach of the Air Rifle Club. He's hoping that club will evolve into an NCAA team "if we can fundraise the monies," he said.
In the meantime, said Camille Slemp, an MSU senior and member of the Air Rifle Club, it will be good for the team just to have a space where they can practice more often.
"Right now, we're really limited in the amount of time we can practice and the specific days we can practice," she said.
"If there were expanded hours, I'd definitely have more times when I could fit shooting into my schedule."
Archery team coach Norm Graham said the team has been competitive, new facilities or not. It's produced two individual national champions and two national championship teams since 1998.
"It's the extension out into the community, into the schools, the 4-H clubs that will make a big difference," he said.
Not to mention the fact that there are discussions of making the center into a regional Olympic archery training center.
"We hope one day to produce an Olympian," Taylor said, "on the gold medal stand, an MSU student affected by this program."
