Facility Tours at Northwestern, Northern Illinois, and Colorado State

One of the perks of being a graduate student is the opportunity to travel frequently and tour facilities at a number of universities. I was able to make three such visits in November to Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, and Colorado State University.

I toured Northwestern on Friday, November 13 with five of my fellow classmates led by Northwestern’s Associate Athletics Director of Academic Services and Compliance. The tour included visiting Ryan Field (renovated in 1997), Howard J. Trienens Indoor Practice Facility (opened in 1996), Welsh-Ryan Arena (renovated in 1983), and Lakeside Field (opened in 2007). The Trienens facility features a shortened practice field due to the space restraints of Northwestern’s Evanston, Illinois campus, but provides enough space to allow the Wildcats to escape the nasty winds off Lake Michigan. Lakeside Field features two playing spaces (one for field hockey and a shared field for soccer and lacrosse) and its close proximity to the lake provides an unmatched home field advantage for Northwestern Athletics.

I shared my trip to DeKalb, Illinois on Saturday, November 14 with four classmates as we toured the state of the art Jeffrey and Kimberly Yordon Center with Senior Associate Athletics Director Tim McMurray. The facility was initially budgeted as a $7.5 million addition but enough donations were collected to double that expense. This allowed McMurray and the NIU staff to ensure every aspect of the project was top of the line. This includes a 12,500 square foot Strength and Conditioning Center featuring a 40-yard track. While the facility was opened in August 2007, the Yordon Center looks like it was opened yesterday with new features added frequently.

I visited Colorado State University’s brand new Academic and Training Center and Indoor Practice Facility on Wednesday, November 25. CSU’s Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Operations Gary Ozzello led me on my tour of the two facilities that opened in August. The Academic and Training Center features a weight room to handle each of the Rams’ teams and study area for up to half of its 400 student athletes. The Indoor Practice Facility is a truly multipurpose center with a 70-yard football field, practice courts used by Men’s and Women’s Basketball and Volleyball, a 60-yard indoor track, indoor throwing area for Track and Field, and batting cages for Softball. CSU was able to remove a potential safety hazard in its football field by installing 12 robotic cameras that can be operated from across campus instead of the dangerous camera towers used at its outdoor field.