Dedication of new fieldhouse set for Oct. 2

The dedication of Northwestern College’s new Juffer Athletic Fieldhouse is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, during the college’s Raider Days Homecoming and Parents Weekend. The public is invited to the 4:30 p.m. ceremony, which will be followed by tours and precedes the annual by-invitation Legacy Celebration Banquet.

Named for Ron and Peg Juffer of Orange City, the 33,000-square-foot facility provides an indoor practice arena for baseball, softball, football, soccer and golf, as well as strength and conditioning facilities for all student-athletes. Ron Juffer is a Northwestern alum who, during his 47-year career at NWC, served as a professor in the education department and coached baseball for 17 years and men’s basketball for two. His wife, Peg, was a local elementary school librarian who taught education courses at the college on a part-time basis, mentored students and supervised student teachers.

The Juffer Athletic Fieldhouse includes the 6,300-square-foot Korver Athletic Performance Center with state-of-the-art Sorinex weight equipment; an area for dynamic stretching, speed work and resistance training; a reinforced throw wall for use of weighted medicine balls; and a wall-mounted large-screen TV for teaching athletes and kinesiology students proper technique. Use of the center will be supervised by certified strength and conditioning coaches.

The Juffer Fieldhouse also contains a 3,600-square-foot golf practice room with a practice putting green featuring an undulating surface and multiple holes; a straight-line putting station; a variety of turfs for practicing chip shots to the green; and four hitting stations—including one dedicated for swing analysis through the use of a launch monitor that gauges ball speed, spin and trajectory. There are also individual lockers for members of the college’s men’s and women’s golf teams.

The largest part of the building, the 20,000-square-foot Dave and Anita Bomgaars Family Field, is covered in FieldTurf and marked with a 40-yard football field, an indoor soccer field, and foul lines for baseball and softball. It is enclosed with netting for baseball and softball hitting and fielding, as well as equipped with pitching mounds, backstops and batting cages.

The golf practice room will be available to the public at designated times as an extension of their DeWitt Fitness Center membership or through daily use fees. The Bomgaars Field will also be open to the campus community and fitness center members at designated times.

Dave Bomgaars of Orange City, who served as chair of the campaign to raise funds for the $3.3 million building, will speak during the dedication program. Also scheduled to give remarks are Marty Guthmiller, chair of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees; Dr. Earl Woudstra, director of athletics; and Laura Hurley, a senior softball player from Canton, S.D., who is majoring in biology-health professions and mathematics. Bomgaars and his wife, Anita, and Ron and Peg Juffer will participate in the ribbon cutting.

Cannon Moss Brygger Architects of Sioux City designed the Juffer Fieldhouse. Hoogendoorn Construction of Canton, S.D., was the general contractor.