Facilities: The backbone of athletics

By: Andrew Nowel, Sports Layout Editor

Alec Wheeler began his job as the assistant director of facilities for Canisius athletics last November and immediately found out what the job entailed. His first day on the job was during Kids Day at a women’s basketball game, where many young fans from all over Buffalo came to cheer on the Griffs. After a short time, Wheeler was hooked and began to work tirelessly to make everything flow at the Koessler Athletic Center (KAC), the Demske Sports Complex and the Palisano Pavilion. With a group as passionate as the facilities team, Canisius athletics is built from the ground up – starting with facilities as its backbone.

Facilities does many things that people see while at games, but not many realize the hours of preparation that’s involved not only on gameday, but the days before to make the experience for fans, players, coaches and so many others as perfect as it can be. “Gameday is a lot of running around the building fixing little details because that’s when we have the most eyes on us. Trying to have everyone see a school that is a small school, but while we may not be Alabama or Central Florida, we are Canisius and we’re going to do the very best,” said Wheeler.

A regular day for Wheeler and his team begins when the women’s lacrosse team starts practice at six in the morning, but the field at Demske must be set up for the team to practice to their full capability. While women’s lacrosse is practicing outside, women's volleyball also begins practice at six in the morning and their court needs to be set up. Wheeler acknowledged how his team of grad students has days with long hours and little recognition, but the end product is something to be proud of. “Without us, the teams can’t play to the best of their abilities, so we take a lot of pride in knowing that we’re the support system,” said Wheeler. 

On gamedays, the facilities team works with many different components to host a game at either the KAC or Demske. Along with setting up the field with the correct orientation for fences, the team has to make sure that equipment for game operations is set in place for when the sports information director of that sport arrives to begin their job. Facilities also works with the ESPN crew at Canisius, like communicating the setup for all broadcast equipment prior to games. With the many things that Wheeler does, the fun never ends as he gets to do a new thing every day. When it comes to his job, it’s all about communication between everyone to make sure things run smoothly.

With the small community at Canisius, prospective students get to see the hands-on experience that they would get in many different fields. Wheeler commented on how those students get better opportunities at Canisius than at a bigger school: “Canisius is going to put you in a better position. When you get more to work with, you’ll do a lot more with it.” Being able to attend Canisius helps students, both undergraduate and graduate, obtain a deeper level of skills.

Not only does the facilities team run everything at the KAC and Demske, but also at the Palisano Pavilion across campus. Many people aren’t aware that the athletic department is connected not only to athletes, but every student at Canisius. “We serve the entire university at Palisano, including athletes who do their workouts there. We also can use the new studio that student government helped to put in, and they put a lot of effort into getting it, so I saw that and my immediate thought was I can have classes run through there as well as the dance team utilizing it,” Wheeler mentioned.

The facilities team at Canisius strives every day to make athletes and students feel at home in Buffalo. Wheeler and his team work to help athletes be the best they can be on and off the field. Embodying the Canisius way of where leaders are made, Wheeler is just a small part of the greater development that Canisius works for on the field, in the classroom and in other activities to grow the next generation into the leaders of today.