UNA student athletes are one step closer to having a larger, more functional weight-training facility.

The UNA Board of Trustees approved funding for a new workout facility for the athletics department at their March 11 meeting. The facility will cost approximately $440,000, according to earlier Flor-Ala reports.

“It is overdue,” said Trustee Marty Abroms during the meeting. “I really think we have a lot of deferred need to bring our facility up to the level of our competition.”

Mark Linder, director of athletics, said he agrees with Abroms.

“It has been a need for a long period of time,” he said. “It’s been the collective effort of everyone who’s been here since I’ve been here.”

The Department of Athletics has raised $290,000 so far in in-kind contributions. The remaining $150,000 will be funded by the university and will be repaid over a five-year period, said President Bill Cale during the board meeting.

The new facility will be located to the west of Hal Self Fieldhouse, which houses the current weight-training facility. Linder said the new building will be approximately 5,000 square feet. The current weight room is about 1,500 square feet, he said.

“With more space, we’ll be able to get more student athletes in the building and working out at the same time,” he said.

The new facility will also be good for team chemistry, Linder said.

“For instance, right now, we’re getting less than 30 football players in at one time for a workout,” he said. “Breaking groups up like that affects the team chemistry. With the new facility, we’ll be breaking up the team still, but it will hopefully be more of a half-and-half, or an offense/defense-type deal.”

Linder said breaking up the teams for workouts, as they are doing now, stretches the schedule throughout the entire day – a problem that will hopefully be eliminated with the new facility.

The new facility will mainly offer student athletes weight-lifting equipment, Linder said.

“It’s going to be a functional weight room that we can get in and use to get stronger,” he said.

Linder said in an earlier interview with The Flor-Ala that he is hopeful the building will be finished in fall of 2013.

With the completion of this building, Linder said the university will certainly be moving toward its Division I vision for the future.

“This is going to get us closer to the facilities that D-I schools have, as far as space goes,” he said. “Ultimately, though, the project in and of itself will make us a better department with better resources for our athletes.”