Daily Skiff

A new athletics center that will provide new locker rooms and offices for some athletic teams is in the design stages, the associate director of athletics said.

The Worth Hills Olympic Building will house offices for several coaches, including track, soccer, rifle and golf, as well as locker rooms for these teams, said Ross Bailey, associate director of athletics. Bailey said the building will also provide new facilities for the sports medicine and strength and conditioning departments, as well as new storage for sports equipment.

Building plans have passed through all the Board of Trustees committees and are now in the design stages, Bailey said. Fort Worth-based architectural firm Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford was picked to design the building because it had done good work with other campus buildings in the past, such as the The John Justin Athletic Center, Bailey said.

Chris Hall, director of athletic training and sports medicine, said the new building will allow the department to consolidate all of its services for spring sports.

Bailey said he hopes the building will begin construction by this fall. He said the athletics department will need to raise the funding, which is still being estimated, for the project through donations before construction can begin.

Bailey said fundraising will be done almost completely by donations.

Bailey said there is a huge need on campus for new facilities, especially for some of the university's less-publicized sports. For example, Bailey said the rifle coach's office is in the rifle range - isolated from the other teams - and offices for the soccer and track coaches are in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, far from their respective fields.

"[The goal is to] increase the efficiency and provide locker rooms for those teams that don't currently have one," Bailey said.

Dan Abdalla, head soccer coach, said he is excited about the new center because of the convenience as well as the camaraderie that will come from interaction between athletes and coaches of different sports.

"We're all just excited about the possibilities," Abdalla said.

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