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BETHEL – Gould Academy has named an athletic center in the heart of its campus the Lieblein Performance Center.
Rob and Kelly Lieblein, parents of Gould alumnae Cassie ’18 and Maddy ’20, made a gift to the school that allowed improvements and completion of the center this winter.
Cassie and Maddy were competitive alpine ski racers at Gould. Cassie is skiing at Colby College, and Maddy is participating in club soccer and ski patrol at Middlebury College.
More than half of Gould’s student body passes through the center daily as they prepare for, and return from, outdoor activities. Students enter Ordway Hall to visit the dining hall, then proceed to the Performance Center on the lower level to gather their ski gear, get on their bikes or use the tuning or workshop facilities. Coaches’ offices and athletic training spaces are conveniently located in the space as well. The area features Wintersteiger Easystore ski racks and boot dryers, as well as the home of Speedworks, a dedicated Wintersteiger tuning facility staffed with full-time equipment techs from Sunday River Resort. There is also a classroom for hand-building skis and snowboards in a dedicated workshop, which is one of Gould’s most popular classes.
The coaches’ offices were also named Alera Group Coaches Offices. Rob Lieblein is chief development officer of Alera Group, an insurance and financial services firm. The renovation of the coaches’ offices provides Gould’s coaches with a place for meetings with students and teams.
Head of School Tao Smith said the Performance Center is an appropriate choice to honor the Lieblein family legacy to Gould and to the community. “The generosity of this gift impacts current and future Gould students in a meaningful way,” Smith said. “It gives our students an opportunity to ‘complete the loop,’ learning modern techniques to design and build their own equipment, to world-class tuning and maintenance support, to conference and video review space, to activation and recovery instruction in a dedicated training room staffed by Gould employees. It also makes it easy for athletes to fuel themselves before training or competition, being located on the ground floor of our dining hall. It’s the embodiment of a true full-circle ecosystem, designed to create an unparalleled athletic experience for students at Gould.”
PHOTOS: Gould Academy student Owen Rogers, class of 2025, from Saudi Arabia, gets ready in the Lieblein Performance Center to go skiing (above). (below) The Lieblein family, Kelly, Maddy, Cassie and Rob. (Submitted photos)
