East Central Community College administrators, staff and students gathered in the bitter cold Tuesday to officially launch construction on Warrior Hall.
When complete, the new building will house the college football teams locker rooms, training facilities, weight room and staff offices.
Witnessing the official start to the long-awaited building outmatched the near-freezing temperatures and biting wind that blew across the college’s Decatur Campus, drawing several dozen people, who huddled around large propane heaters set up near the venue.
“I guess the heaters are more popular than the chairs today,” joked Billy Stewart, president of ECCC, gesturing to the deserted rows of chairs laid out for guests of the groundbreaking event.
Stewart said Warrior Hall has been a vision of the college’s Board of Trustees and the East Central Foundation for a long time. The board even added it to their 5-year plan to make sure it got done.
However, Stewart said, the new multi-million dollar football complex isn’t about football.
“This facility will catch the eye of several student athletes whose lives will be forever changed by the time they spend at East Central,” he said. “Not only does this facility represent progress, it represents the EC way: Excellence with class.”
Warrior Hall will help draw students to East Central, Stewart said, and it will provide a point of pride for those students, something to talk about and remember from their time at the college. In the end, Stewart said, the complex is another way the college can offer students a beautiful campus and and education that will carry them for the rest of their lives.
