COLONIE, N.Y. — Whether you’re a coach, player, parent, spectator, or reporter, there are some days in the Northeast when one wishes there was a dome. After Friday, it’s no longer wishful thinking for Christian Brothers Academy (CBA). The school held an official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Karen and Frank Willey ’71 Dome.
The dome is the first of its kind for any Capital Region school.
The ceremony brought out supporters, community members, faculty, staff and students. A $4 million drive from those benefactors culminated in the year-round facility hosting athletics, JROTC, and the marching band.
Gone are the days of crowded gyms or practicing through torrential rain.
The 70,000-square-foot multi-purpose dome features a covered field and surface for football, soccer, lacrosse, and baseball. There’s a space for drills, formation, band, and physical education classes. The facility also includes a 200-meter, four-lane track, batting cages, a golf simulator, a weight room, and a wrestling mat area.
Karen and Frank Wiley were among the chief benefactors helping the facility come to fruition.
Frank is a partner with the Los Angeles law firm of Hennelly & Grossfield, LLP. Since 2017, he has served as a director of Cannae Holdings, Inc., and is currently the Vice Chairman of Commercial Bank of California.
Frank and Karen have been married for 31 years and are dedicated philanthropists; including building a school in India through The Siksha Foundation, supporters of ‘Camp Rainbow Gold’ an Idaho organization that serves child cancer victims and their families, The Hunger Coalition, a food bank that supports health & nutrition, The Folded Flag Foundation supporting fallen heroes through educational subsidies, the Mountain Humane Society, and Idaho & Phoenix Catholic Appeal.
As a kid who grew up in Arbor Hill and attended CBA from 1967 to 1971 when it was located at 1 De la Salle Rd. in Albany, Frank commented on what it meant to come back and give back.
“Oh I tell ya, it was extremely emotional. I was actually surprised I didn’t cry because it was such an emotional day having been gone so long and getting a tour of the building earlier today and then the dome,” he said.
“Seeing the kids in uniform with their respect that they show for you, the manners, they exude Christian values, their scholastic abilities, their athletic abilities it brought back extremely fond memories, welled up a lot of emotion, it was like I had never left when I saw the kids,” he continued.
“I remember the uniforms but their swords are a lot cooler than the swords we had back in our day, that’s one thing I mentioned to them,” he added.
Director of Athletics, Blaine Drescher spoke about how the process commenced with the completion of the dome facility.
“It’s been a little over two years and it’s finally completed today. We’re pretty happy at the CBA community and it’s just an exciting day for us,” Drescher said.
Drescher explained how the dome is paying immediate dividends.
“In the first six weeks since we’ve used it we’ve had rain every day it feels like in Upstate New York. We have a lacrosse team, a track team, baseball team in here day in and day out,” Drescher noted.
Brothers football head coach Bob Burns remarked on the benefits of the added practice space and proximity to their weight room. He also spoke about the positives of the climate-controlled setting and not dealing with a soaring heat index or thunder and lightning nixing practices.
“Nobody likes to practice in the pouring rain. I know coaches say, well we gotta play in it, we gotta practice in it. I’m not necessarily one of them guys. If it’s cold, it’s different but the rain, if it’s a torrential downpour you don’t get much accomplished,” Burns said.
Burns added there’s the extra motivation practicing in one dome to end the season at another in Syracuse.
Additionally, both Burns and Drescher concurred on the opportunity to use the dome as a recruitment tool for prospective student-athletes.
“It almost has a bit of a college feel to it where a lot of these bigger programs have these indoor facilities where they’re doing all of their spring ball and as far as us with the offseason stuff, we try to kinda emulate what the colleges are doing,” Burns explained.
“Now that we’re fortunate enough to have this facility, we’re kinda running it that way. It’s something that the kids definitely are attracted to and they wanna be in here and wanna use these resources to the best of our ability,” Burns noted.
“We obviously are a school that has a rich tradition in athletics and for anybody that steps foot on the CBA campus I mean this thing is fantastic and I couldn’t think of any reason that anybody wouldn’t want to come and be a part of this and participate in CBA athletics and go to school here,” Drescher added.
