A fine replacement for the Gritty Grotto

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This article was published 08/04/2015 (3856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This is not your father’s Gritty Grotto.

The University of Manitoba unveiled its highly anticipated Active Living Centre Tuesday morning, an open, well-lit and state-of-the-art facility that’s has been described as a “game-changer” for the province’s largest post-secondary institution.

At nearly 10,700 square metres in size, it will be home to some 400 U of M Bison athletes as well as students, staff and members of the public looking to do everything from casual workouts to high-performance training. There’s an indoor track, several dozen cardio machines and free weights, but the focal point will undoubtedly be the 12-metre-high climbing wall.

The ALC replaces the Gritty Grotto, a dimly lit dungeon of a gym and track that is being remembered as an eyesore by pretty much everybody except Israel Idonije, the former Bison football player who played more than a decade in the NFL after moving to Manitoba from Nigeria as a child.

“That was our dungeon,” he said. “I got here when I was 17 years old. The Grotto was all we knew. Yes, it was funky and it was dirty and it was small, but it was beyond that for us. We had a tight group of guys that came in and we worked hard.

“The culture here at the university as far as athletics was work and ethic, and we were able to have some successful seasons,” he said.

Idonije’s coach at the U of M, Brian Dobie, made no attempt to hide his enthusiasm at the opening, which was attended by more than 300 people.

“For every student that walks onto this campus, this is a game-changer. There are just under 400 student athletes at the U of M, and their room in this palace is about 10,000 square feet. It’s mind-boggling,” Dobie said.

Now equipped with the best student-athlete facilities in the country, Dobie said he has been “recruiting up” all winter with local high school players and “fly-ins” from across the country.

“I don’t want to be the humble Canadian, I want to brag like the Americans about what we have. There is no university in this nation that has what we have. Every (player) who has walked into this facility is shocked,” he said.

David Barnard, the U of M’s president and vice-chancellor, called the new facility “a tremendous improvement” over the Grotto.

“We’re looking to have people from the community here as well. It’s going to be great for our researchers and our student athletes, but it’s intended to be a facility that will also welcome everyone who is interested in increasing their level of activity in their own schedules,” he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca