Football Woody Hayes Athletic Center Renovation By John Porentas - Photos by Jim Davidson The 18 million dollar renovation and expansion of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center for OSU football is not only underway, but the first phase is nearly complete. The long-awaited renovation and construction project is now nearing the end of phase one, the renovation of existing facilities. Phase two, the construction of new facilities, is also underway but not nearly complete. According to Don Patko, OSU Assistant Athletics Director for Athletic Facilities, the project is on schedule. The renovated areas of the WHAC should be ready for use by the scheduled date of July 24, in time for the return of the OSU football team for fall camp. Last Friday the-Ozone was privileged to get a glimpse of both the upgraded facilities as well as the progress made on the new construction. To say that we were impressed would be a horrible understatement. The renovated area comprises 33,000 square feet of space, and it is barely recognizable after its facelift. What was once a 1986 vintage facility is now a state-of-the art, high tech facility that is impressive to say the least. The phase one renovation will provide the OSU coaching staff with teaching and meeting facilities that will be state-of-the-art and second-to-none. Phase one also will provide a completely new office for Head Coach Jim Tressel, new locker room facilities, new storage facilities, and improved video facilities. According to OSU project coordinator Sean Perkins, who is on construction site daily, the new building design and layout will reflect to a very large degree the wishes of OSU Head Coach Jim Tressel. "Jim Tressel had a lot of input in this. He was very concerned about breakout rooms and meeting spaces, having six areas to meet with six different positions," said Perkins By the deadline date in June, OSU coaches will have just that. Along with a renovated team meeting room that already existed, the OSU coaching staff will have six meeting areas that will also also serve as offices for assistant coaches for the coming year. New private offices for each assistant coach will be completed as part of phase two. "Now we have an opportunity to create higher-level teaching areas for the coaching staff which will be second-to-none," said Perkins. Meeting areas will be available for special teams, linebackers, defensive linemen, offensive linemen, defensive backs, wide receivers and running backs. In addition, an offensive and defensive conference room will be available to compliment the now-existing team meeting room. "Every breakout room we have, every single office that we have, has a screen and a projector which is that high-end screen that is perfectly straight with the HD screen and HD projector. It is very high tech and very advanced. Mark Smith who in charge of all the videos for the Department of Athletics was instrumental in that. Mark Quizenberry had input as well," said Perkins. Each room also boasts white boards for notations as well as lots of storage space for DVDs and video tapes. Even the seats the players will sit in are high tech. "The seats we have in here are extra wide and they're rated for 350 pound linemen to literally fall into them and not damage them," said Perkins. "That's important because if we didn't have them, if they weren't the souped up chair, then we would have problems with them breaking all the time. There's also the issue of player comfort. They are big enough that a big guy can sit in them and not feel cramped and stuffed into a small space." The renovated area includes the locker room and shower facilities. The locker room features oversized, all wood, open-face lockers and 12 flat-screen televisions that are built into the walls. According to Perkins, Tressel's input has OSU looking forward to future improvements in the renovated areas. "He also had forethought in that when this is done, there will be a little room for expansion for offices," said Perkins. "We have an area for coaches emeritus, a compliance director office. We have a nice media room that's going," said Perkins. Phase two, the expansion and upgrade of the weight room and training facilities, is also well under way. That phase will add 52,700 square feet to the existing facility, more-than doubling it. One of the areas being expanded is OSU's weight room which will expand from 7,000 square feet to 13,000 square feet. That, according to Perkins, will make it one of, if not the largest, football-only weight rooms anywhere.
BuckT, I just found it in a random search. I was looking for something interesting on Woody and that cartoon seemed to capture his obsession with detail as I remember it... ............JO'Co
JO'Co, you remember it well... there is a great quote from Joe Paterno from when he was a young coach listening to Woody holding court late one night at a coaches convention describing how Woody was the only coach he'd ever known who could show you how to block the same off-tackle play 15 different ways, influence the playside LB's differently each time and never be boring...who needs 100's of different formations? 3 yards, a cloud of dust and a whole helluva lot of different blocking angles! God Bless his soul.... Terry
Woody was one of a kind for sure. The funniest Woody I ever saw was when he worked a game with Keith Jackson (I think), in fact I believe it was a USC/Notre Dame game. He was so uncomfortable it was really funny. He didn't really want to say anything good about either team, being the competitor that he was! Terry