On July 14, Castleton State College became the official owner of Rutland Regional Fieldhouse, which is soon to be renamed Spartan Arena. Castleton purchased the Fieldhouse for $650,000 and saved it from foreclosure. The college has many plans for the rink, both educational as well as recreational. “I think there’s a great possibility for internships, and student involvement in a real organization that has a role not only for the college, but also for the community. It makes the link between Castleton and its surrounding community stronger. I’m really excited,” said Business Department professor Cathy Van Yperen.

Castleton hopes to expand the role of the building far beyond its past usage.

Deanna Tyson, associate dean of athletics and recreation, said that students will basically be running the facility. There will be a manager there to oversee them, but the students specifically will be dealing with things like scheduling and maintenance, all in the hopes that they will get a feel for what it’s like to run an actual rink.

“We’re excited about owning the rink because we’ll have a lot more opportunities for our students to get in there now than we did before. It opens up a whole new world of opportunities for students, and not just academic ones,” said Tyson.

Tyson also said that the college hopes to be able to hold intramural sports there like indoor soccer when the ice isn’t in, as well as having coaches hold sports camps during the summer.

Along with all of the internships, and intramural sports, Castleton hopes to host things like employee family day where the faculty can bring there family to go skating at the rink, as well as having select hours where the students can go to skate for free or at a discounted price.

Drew Arensen, one of the announcers for the hockey games last year along, spoke very excitedly about the purchase.

“I think it’s great for all of those people like me who are interested in broadcasting or sports analysis to continue our training and hopes for the future,” he said.

The college plans to put the ice down on Sept. 20, and hopes to have students in there and working at the facility the week after that. It will also be open to the public, as it has been in the past, Tyson said.