By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Kentucky Christian University recently broke ground on the construction of a thirty foot by one-hundred-eighty foot facility that will support one of their growing college sports teams. The new facility will house fifteen of the boats used by KCU’s fishing team and will also serve as a secure place for students to store all of their fishing gear between meets.
“Boats have a lot of parts on them, and those parts are all expensive,” David Manning, KCU Athletic Director said. “This new facility will give the students more security and protection, not to mention peace of mind. They can store their boats and work on them if they need to. You might as well say it’s their locker room.”
Manning said that if the students aren’t eating or in class, they will be at the new facility working on their boats and hanging out.
Manning said the fishing program at Kentucky Christian University currently has twenty-one students involved, with two coaches and volunteers. The involved students are both male and female, and Manning said the program is poised to grow with the added incentive of the availability of fishing scholarships. And the beauty of the sport, Manning said, is that you can compete on even footing regardless of the size of the school. KCU typically places between eleventh and thirteenth in nationwide rating among roughly three hundred schools.
The school did not need to purchase property for the construction but was instead able to make use of land it already owned. The cost of the new facility, however, comes to around $165,000.00, Manning said. But that cost won’t have to be absorbed by the school due to a generous donation from the parents of one of the students, Reese Kinney, whose donation will completely cover the price of the new facility.
“It was so exciting when Reese’s parents, Josh and Amy, got in touch with us about wanting to build a proper place to put these boats,” KCU President Terry Allcorn said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“We’ve always appreciated the members of the Bass Fishing Team,” Allcorn continued. “You always bring your boats and that’s a big deal to us. And we’re really excited to have a good place to store them and keep them safe. We are very grateful for that opportunity and really appreciate you all coming out for this groundbreaking.”
Allcorn said the building was completely paid for with donations and volunteer labor, and the school was fortunate to have such wonderful donors and volunteers.
Grayson Mayor Troy Combs said he was happy to be at the groundbreaking ceremony, and happy to see the young people involved in the now six-year-old program.
“It brings people to our community, and if there are people in our area who want to pursue this option, they can now do that,” Combs said. “And I love to see KCU growing. On behalf of the city, we want to do everything we can to assist and collaborate, and hope to continue to do that going forward. And we want to wish you ‘Good Fishing’.”
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
