The Online Reflector

It’s game day, and the women’s soccer team is preparing for its 5 p.m. home game. We finish up our pre-game meal in Schwitzer Student Center and head to Ruth Lilly Fitness Center, where we spend the next hour and a half mentally preparing for the game—in a classroom.

There is no locker room to go to, and no area to store our things. The visiting team uses the public locker room for the pool as.

For halftime, we use the locker room reserved for the football team’s opponents; and after the game, there are no showers to use. We greet our parents smelly and sweaty after the game before we can return to our houses or dorms to shower.

This was the story of the women’s soccer team before the new Athletic Recreation Center was built this year. On March 29, the building officially opened to both the public and the athletic teams who are using it, and we are extremely grateful.
In addition to the dome that has been in use for a couple of weeks now, the ARC facility also consists of a building with offices, conference rooms and locker rooms.

The offices stretch down a long hallway, starting with the football offices, then men’s soccer, women’s soccer, baseball and softball offices. Where before many coaches had to share offices with their assistant coaches or graduate assistants, now each head coach has his or her own office. Across the hall from each head coach’s office are the offices of his of her assistant coach and graduate assistants.

Before the ARC, these coaches were all stuffed in the basement of Ruth Lilly in tiny offices with no windows. Football and soccer shared the same space for offices, causing neither sport to have enough space. Furthermore, since they were in the basement, often their cell phones didn’t work because they couldn’t get service. As a coach, each needed to be constantly available to many people, and not having cell phone service was a big problem.

Furthermore, there was no area to bring a team in to view films or have meetings unless a large classroom was open, often the multipurpose room in Ruth Lilly. Sharing this space with students only added to the overcrowding and scheduling issues in Ruth Lilly, as the building tried to double as both an athletic center and a learning center. Now, offices that were once for athletics can be transformed into classrooms.

With the ARC, many of these problems will be solved. Coaches have bigger offices and more space. Large conference rooms allow entire teams to have meetings and watch film together in a true athletic space. Little things like these go a long way toward improving an athletic team’s mental strength, something that is essential in tough games.

The ARC also will help with the recruiting process. Recruits are an athletic program’s way of keeping success alive, and successful athletics brings money to the university that can be used in many ways. When a recruit comes and sees a nice building such as the ARC, he or she can picture the benefits and advantages of the facility, and that can help sway the person to commit to UIndy.

Finally, having a locker room is beneficial to a team’s unity and chemistry. It is a place where team members can go to relax or to prepare for a game. Having a space dedicated solely to a sport allows team members to focus on the game ahead, and it can be an escape from all the pressures of school and social life.

The ARC building will benefit student-athletes, coaches and students on both a short-term and a long-term basis and will continue to improve our campus facilities.