Athletes Kicked Across River After MAC Closure

The Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) closed unceremoniously for renovation on Monday, shutting its doors so it can be thoroughly renovated in time for a scheduled reopening in October. Players, coaches, recreational exercisers, and administrators in the Department of Athletics who coordinated the move said that the closure—which caused an uproar among Harvard students last fall and which displaces five varsity teams and numerous club teams—passed smoothly thanks to the well-planned relocation of the teams, offices and equipment formerly housed at the MAC.

Of the four varsity teams affected by the closure of the MAC, the men’s volleyball team is the only one whose regular season matches have had to be moved across the river to Lavietes Pavilion. Among the other teams, the fencing and wrestling teams’ regular season contests scheduled to take place in the MAC have already passed, while the women’s volleyball team does not play again until next fall. All of those teams will practice and play across the river until the MAC reopens.

“The move across the river hasn’t really affected us,” men’s volleyball coach Christopher Ridolfi said. “The athletics department took great care in ensuring that the move was fairly seamless.”

Indeed, the team moved out of the MAC a week before it closed, relocating to a locker room across the river and practicing in Lavietes in advance of their Saturday afternoon home match. The court at Lavietes, which had been used strictly for basketball since 1982, made the transformation into a volleyball court rather simply: with the well-placed addition of tape.

“They taped our lines onto the basketball court,” men’s volleyball co-captain Dave Fitz said. “It’s perfect: looks great, looks like it was almost painted. We didn’t really skip a beat.”

What challenges might arise are likely to come in the early fall, when both basketball teams and both volleyball teams are vying for the same court space. Ridolfi said that his team—which would be in off-season training then—could be flexible in its time assignments and added that any potential overcrowding could be mitigated by scheduling compromise among the teams.

The fluid transition from the MAC to the athletic complex drew positive reviews from other athletes as well. The ease of shift for both recreational and varsity athletes can be attributed to a planning process that began in late August, according to Wendy Healy, the area manager of the MAC, who oversaw the project, and Jake Olkkola, the manager of recreational services, who assisted her.

“We knew this was coming, so we could do a lot of planning ahead,” Olkkola said. “Because we started the process in the late summer, nothing had to happen overnight. We did a lot of notification at the MAC before it closed, and we planned this around spring break so the impact would be minimal to the students.”

To ease the crunch on exercise equipment and space that the MAC closure causes, the Department of Athletics is establishing satellite facilities into which the MAC’s equipment is being temporarily redistributed. These include: expanded hours at Blodgett pool, cardio equipment and weights being set up in the Gordon Indoor Track, placement of cardio equipment in Wigglesworth basement, and the allocation of individual pieces of equipment to house gyms. All these peripheral facilities are expected to be open and operational beginning April 2.

Though the MAC’s closure forced the establishment of new routines among Harvard’s recreational athletes and increased traffic marginally at other gyms—especially at Harvard Law School's Hemenway Gymnasium—the closing doesn't appear to have led to excessive crowding or discomfort for exercisers or staff.

“They’re doing a really good job,” said freshman Ari Caranamica, who regularly exercises at Hemenway. “Now they’re doing announcements, telling people when it’s time to let others on the cardio machines, and people are being really courteous, getting off the machines.”

The coming weeks will put the recreation staff to the test, but Healy, who also serves as area manager for Hemenway, was optimistic.

“After living through [Monday], We feel really confident that we’ll be able to get through the next few weeks easily,” she said. “I don’t want to say the dust is settled, but we’re way ahead of schedule.”

—Staff writer Jonathan B. Steinman can be reached at steinman@fas.harvard.edu.