Kuyper Unveils New Athletic Facilities

A visitor to the Kuyper College Athletic Department might notice that things are looking a lot different these days thanks to significant changes made to the facilities in recent months.

Kuyper Athletic Director and men’s basketball coach Gary Bailey said he’s been looking forward to the transformation since he became AD in 2022, and he can’t wait to show off the new look at Homecoming on November 9.

“I started thinking about it right away,” he said of the recent renovations while sitting in his office inside the sparkling new athletic suite.

His office is adjacent to the other athletic offices and opposite a wall lined with photos of current student-athletes. Nearby a well-appointed conference room is used for hosting prospective student-athletes and their families.

Outside the athletic suite. more photos line a hallway that leads to a revamped fitness center.

As Bailey led a tour for a visitor recently he gestured into the room and pointed out why it feels so much bigger now.

“We started by knocking out a wall that used to separate two rooms,” he said. “Then, we painted and added new mats.”

A wide assortment of equipment, thanks to a generous gift from Aquinas College, awaits the campus and the College’s varsity and junior varsity teams, something Bailey said is critical both to current athletes and recruits.

Bailey knows this from many years of experience. A National Christian College Athletic Association Hall of Fame member, he came to Kuyper from Grace Christian University where as both AD and men’s head basketball coach, his teams participated in 15 NCCAA Division II Basketball Championships, winning seven national titles. 

During this time and his many years of coaching beforehand, as well as his own tenure as a player, Bailey has learned a thing or two about how to draw in new student-athletes.

“They’re spending most of their time in these kinds of places, so that’s what we wanted to address,” he says.

He’s also excited about the Kuyper Spirit Store and the reworked Boonstra Gymnasium, where some of the most noticeable changes have been made. 

The court’s wood flooring has been completely resurfaced and beautifully stained, and it is lined with brand-new, automated bleachers, which Bailey says he is especially excited about.

“I’ve done the push and pull with the manual ones for too many years,” he said with a chuckle.

Behind the locker room door a wide and open space has been converted into men’s and women’s locker rooms, showers and storage facilities and outside the indoor facilities and across the parking lot is a refreshed soccer field where the Cougars will host home matches in 2025 and beyond.

Ultimately, Bailey said, the athletic renovations are about welcoming others in. 

Whether that is by providing a dedicated place for visiting officials to change, meeting the training needs of student athletes or by giving spectators a comfortable place to sit, it’s all intended to make the Kuyper campus as hospitable as possible.