Scene Magazine | Winter 2021
Mike Poster '88 couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction watching his high school alma mater take the football field of the Jack and Pat Bush Stadium at the St. Vincent's Athletics Complex in early September.
A former St. Ambrose offensive lineman, Poster has been at the forefront of efforts to create a true homefield for both the SAU Fighting Bees and the Assumption High School Knights since the University purchased the property from the Diocese of Davenport in 2009.
The football games played at the SVAC this past fall didn't involve the Fighting Bees, and that early September kickoff didn't spell the end of the ongoing project. The Fighting Bees won't play varsity football at the stadium until the final phase of the three-stage project – a $5 million grandstand with a press box, a concession stand, and a separate locker room facility – is complete.
Fundraising is ongoing for Phase III, and the Board of Trustees has yet to approve those additions.
Poster, however, also is a graduate of Assumption, and the opportunity finally to see football played on the property gave the SAU Vice President for Finance a sense of completion.
"It was kind of nice to say we've got this part done," Poster said of a project that encountered neighborhood objections and mayoral interference in its earliest stages. "It has been a tough slog."
Phase II Completed
In addition to the football field and partial grandstand, restrooms, and partial press box, Phase II included an all-weather, eight-lane track surface and accompanying areas for field events.
St. Ambrose and Assumption have been using the SVAC complex since 2016 when Phase I of the project was completed. It consisted of two football/lacrosse/soccer fields and a state-of-the-art softball diamond on the east end of the property. In 2018, SAU opened a football office and practice locker room on the southeastern edge of the property. An attached wrestling building opened this fall.
In addition to the football field and partial grandstand, restrooms and a partial press box, the now completed Phase II included construction of an all-weather, eight-lane track surface and accompanying areas for field events. It is the first outdoor track and field facility the University has had to call its own, and head coach Dan Tomlin '05, '10 MBA said it is a most welcome addition. The first meet will take place in April but the Bees practiced at the facility this fall.
"To have that space is unbelievable," Tomlin said. "It is a really good, fast surface. You run out of superlatives after a while."
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