Faith weight room gets a makeover

May 15, 2018

A major renovation to the weight room at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary has been finished after months of planning, collaboration, designing, and painting.

As Faith continues to grow and raise the bar to better serve student-athletes, the redesign of the weight room is an important piece of the long-term facilities plan on campus.  According to Faith’s Dean of Students, Brandon Fritz, the transformed space is much more multi-functional than before, in addition to being much more visually appealing.

“We geared the design toward functional strength and player development,” said Fritz.  We want to make athletes better athletes.  It’s a multi-functional approach where one piece of equipment can assist in several different exercises, very similar to the CrossFit approach.”

Fritz said the newly designed area was strategically planned to train up to 25 athletes at once, allowing for optimal ability to do clinics, sports camps, and skill development for entire teams.

The room received a complete makeover with new wall paint and graphics, new flooring, and all new equipment (except the treadmills).  All equipment was purchased through Rogue Fitness, whom Fritz lauded as a trustworthy and competitively priced leader in the fitness equipment industry.

Some of the new pieces the Athletics Department is most excited about include:

• New squat racks
• Bumper plate weights that allow for Olympic-style weightlifting
• Medicine balls of all sizes
• Tension bands that will help with speed and agility

The painting portion of the project was designed and completed, start-to-finish, by Matthew Freeland, Graphic Designer for Faith.  The wall quote was inspired by a chapel message on campus but originally spoken by William Borden, a missionary from the early 1900’s.  Borden wrote the words “No reserves, no retreats, and no regrets” in the back of his Bible before passing away at the age of 25 with spinal meningitis.

Freeland used a new, European style of art known as “Graphic Surgery” as inspiration for the design, which implements geometry and architectural shapes.  The painting took Freeland approximately four weeks to complete, with the use of a projector and latex wall paints with a semi-gloss finish.

“Overall, the entire project was a neat testimony of how our campus came together and showed great unity between numerous departments,” concluded Fritz.