With the first days of spring, Chairman Charlotte R. Lane of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia would like to offer you some energ…
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Another piece of ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä history might soon be on its way for a change.
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In the last year and a half, two major renovation projects were completed for West Virginia University athletics.
The Puskar Center, which is the daily hub of Mountaineer football, underwent a nearly complete rebuild. At the cost of $55 million, much of the 87,700 square football building was gutted and reconstructed from the ground up. Reopened shortly before the 2021 football season, the Puskar Center has plenty of glitz and glamour to catch the eye of recruits, and it also features functional improvements that help with the way the Mountaineers meet, eat, practice and recover.
Over behind the WVU Coliseum, the West Virginia athletic department used a $10 million gift from the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust to turn the old Natatorium into the Athletic Performance Center. Opened last fall, the APC has become the home for strength and conditioning training, rehabilitation and nutrition for all Mountaineer Olympic sports student-athletes.
“Both turned out much better than I ever anticipated,†said West Virginia director of athletics Shane Lyons prior to his departure from WVU. “I have to give credit to the many people who were involved in those projects and the hard work it took to get where we are. We had a footprint we had to work within, especially in football. It’s often easier to start with a blank slate in terms of a new building rather than trying to adapt to a footprint that you are already dealing with.
“I walk into (the Puskar Center) now, and having the ability to see many other facilities in my travels all over the country, ours is now on par with where we need it to be moving forward,†added Lyons, who has served as West Virginia’s A.D. since 2015. “I don’t want to be the only judge of it, but I also hear that from the prospects who are coming in here. They are wowed by it, and they talk about it. That’s not the only selling tool in the recruiting process, but it’s a big piece of it. We’re investing in football with that building and have the efficiency of having academics, nutrition, strength & conditioning, everything really under one roof.â€
While football and both men’s and women’s basketball have had their own separate training centers for years, WVU’s other sports had to make do with a mixture of cramped, antiquated spaces. Their weight room was a small area in the lower level of the Coliseum, a space basketball abandoned when the basketball practice facility was opened a decade ago.
There had long been various plans that had come and gone in terms of getting West Virginia’s 400 Olympic sports athletes their own modern training facility. Finally in 2019 when the WVU swimming and diving team moved into the new Aquatic Center at Mylan Park, its old home, the Natatorium, was empty and available for repurposing. Thus Lyons put into gear the renovation that led to the 21,000 square foot, multi-level Athletic Performance Center that opened in the fall of 2021.
“The Athletic Performance Center speaks for itself,†beamed Lyons. “It gives our Olympic sports athletes a world-class place to work out. Again, I can’t thank the Ruby McQuain Trust enough for their belief in our student-athletes and our community to be able to donate the money for that facility.
“To look at it now, that was a pool and a diving well for over 40 years. To fill that in and then reconstruct it with the glass and the mezzanine and the weights, the new medical area, new locker room areas, that’s been a game-changer. A lot of times in the past, the Olympic sports coaches took prospects through the weight room at football on their visits; even though they would really never use football, they took them over there. Now there is no reason to do that.â€
Over the last 18 years, the Mountaineers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in improving their athletic facilities. They have opened brand-new homes for soccer, baseball, track and swimming/diving, and they have also constructed the basketball practice facility. They have had major renovations to the concourse areas at both Mountaineer Field and the WVU Coliseum, and they now have rebuilt the Puskar Center and the Athletic Performance Center.
“Those things have made a difference for our student-athletes and their experience here,†stated Lyons. “That’s the whole goal.â€
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