VALLEY CITY, N.D. — Construction on the Tharaldson Family Athletic Center officially began with officials breaking ground on the facility on Thursday, June 12, at Valley City State University’s W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse.
“We’re confident that this new facility will play a vital role in attracting prospective student athletes, maintaining a competitive athletic program, (and) providing a top-notch student athlete experience for generations of Viking athletics,” said Alan LaFave, VCSU president .
The university held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday to commemorate the first shovels going into the ground for construction the Tharaldson Family Athletic Center with multiple speakers, including lead donor Gary Tharaldson, who is a 1967 VCSU graduate.
LaFave said Tharaldson donated $5 million to the project. He said the project was funded primarily by private donations from alumni, supporters, local businesses and others in the community.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been going through the process and to finally see it come to fruition, it’s absolutely amazing for me,” Tharaldson said. “… I think the whole idea why I … do what I do is because Valley City, I went to college here, I lived here for another 10, 12 years after college. … It’s one of the places I remember the most. “
The 69,000-square-foot facility, which is set to open in 2026, will be big enough to hold Vikings softball games and will also serve as a practice facility for the Vikings athletic teams, including track and field, which will be able to use a 60-meter track. The facility will also include a new strength-and-conditioning center, an athletic training room, new locker rooms and team rooms.
The Tharaldson Family Athletic Center and the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse will be connected.
Cory Anderson, executive director for university advancement at VCSU, said the primary focus of construction will be to get the turf field set up as quickly as possible.
He said the project also will include improvements to the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse’s HVAC system and the addition of sprinklers to get up to fire code.
Anderson said the estimated cost of the project will be $12 to $13 million when it is finished. As of Thursday, June 12, he said fundraising for the project is still ongoing.
“We knew then and we found out throughout the campaign that we’d have to turn stones across the greater region,” said Larry Robinson, chair of the Forward Together Capital Campaign. “We tried to do that, I think we were successful in doing that and we were so thankful for the number of people that stepped to the plate who believed in Valley City State University.”
Anderson said he envisions the facility to benefit not only the university’s student-athletes but also the community.
“You think about the area softball teams in the spring of the year. … We’ll have some sprinting lanes and long-jump pits,” Anderson said. “You’ll be able to do some things like that if you want to and obviously batting cages and bullpen mounds. It’s gonna be more than just us. It’s gonna be able to be a community gym.”
While the facility has been in the planning stages for 5 1/2 years, the project has been planned for many years before that.
“If you read the history books of Valley City State, you will note that in 1961 this building (the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse) was put up,” Robinson said. “ … Bill Osmon was our athletic director. We’ve had many, many, many coaches and outstanding athletes pass through this facility, but there was a plan way back then for an addition to this facility. There was recognition then that the size of our athletic department, our coaches and teams, we needed more space.”
Anderson, who graduated from VCSU in 1989, played as a pitcher and a quarterback for the Vikings. He then served in multiple coaching roles from 1992 to 2007.
“It’d have been remarkable,” Anderson said, referring to the facility. “When I was a student here though, the Fargodome didn’t even exist so we were pretty excited to be able to take batting practice inside in our secondary gym instead of outside in the football stadium when it was 10 degrees out.”
Vikings football head coach Dennis McCulloch, who is also the university’s athletic director, said he is excited about the project because the university needed to expand its facilities for a long time. He said the time is right for this project to move forward because the university is no longer worried about being shuttered as it continues to add more money to its endowment and make other campus improvements.
One team that will use the practice facility the most is the Vikings football team, which will have an 85-yard field to practice on. McCulloch said the indoor practice facility will come in especially handy during the winter months when it is too cold to practice outside.
“It also doesn’t mean that every day we’re practicing football inside. We play outside,” McCulloch said. “We’re gonna still practice and do our things outside because that’s what we have to get used to doing.”
The 2025-26 school year will be the Vikings’ first in the Frontier Conference, which McCulloch said played a role in the decision to build the facility. He said he has told recruits about the new facility for many months.
“We know the quality of teams that we’re going to be going against and the types of programs that we’re going to go against,” McCulloch said. “We need to improve our facilities to match a lot of what they already have in the conference and it also separates from some of the programs within our conference. So it’s gonna help us no question with that piece of it.”
Max O’Neill / The Jamestown Sun
