Marshall Associate Athletic Director Scott Morehouse, left, and project superintendent Jimmy Leach inspect the Thundering Herd’s football locker room inside the Shewey Athletics Building, which is adjacent to Edwards Stadium. The Shewey Building is undergoing a $1.185 million renovation. Included in that is the expansion of the Thundering Herd’s locker room by 800 square feet. The hole in the floor below Morehouse and Leach's feet shows where construction crews knocked out a wall to make more space.
"It's going to be a top-notch facility," Snyder said of the Shewey Athletics Building, which is undergoing ground-level renovations.
The 16-year-old red brick building was completed in 1992, one year after Edwards Stadium opened. The building, which houses the football program, is adjacent to the north end of the stadium.
It was considered to be an upper-echelon facility at a time when Marshall belonged to NCAA Division I-AA.
However, the university moved to Division I-A five years later, initially joining the Mid-American Conference in 1997 and switching to Conference USA in 2005.
"We have needed these renovations for a long time," said Scott Morehouse, Marshall's associate athletic director for game operations and facilities. "When this building was built, it was built for a (Division) I-AA program."
"We're in an arms race," Snyder added.
Morehouse said he approached Snyder two years ago and asked the coach what he needed to take the program to the next level. The main thing, Snyder told Morehouse, was creating a specific area where the players can meet to watch film and focus on it.
That conversation kick-started the project at the Shewey Athletics Building, which also holds the athletic department's top-level administrative offices.
Next came the planning, which primarily involved Morehouse and head equipment manager Rich Worner.
Morehouse and Worner visited opponents' facilities at away games. They also took trips to Kentucky, LSU and Louisville.
"We would look at what they did and were doing, then think about what we could do to enhance our program," Morehouse said.
"We would ask them, 'Hey, what works for you and what doesn't work for you? If you could do it over, what would you change? What would you add? What would you take away?' We just went down there and brainstormed with those folks."
Morehouse and Worner took the good and bad from those discussions and visits to form the foundation for their plans, which called for a larger, improved locker room; a theater-style video room; a set of smaller, position-specific meeting rooms; and a players' lounge.
The cost is $1.185 million.
David Steele, who is Marshall's associate athletic director for administration and business, said the university raised the money through private donations and the facility enhancement fees included in ticket prices.
"It was pretty much a 50-50 split," Steele said.
Marshall began charging a facility enhancement fee of $3 per football ticket and $1 per men's basketball ticket when it joined Conference USA three years ago.
Steele said two years worth of the revenue from that fee went toward the renovations, which began April 28 and are expected to be completed by Aug. 1 or sooner.
"I look forward to being well ahead of that," said project superintendent Jimmy Leach of Huntington-based E.P. Leach and Sons Inc. "We're looking at mid- to late July. It all depends on the materials coming in. As far as the work, we're ahead of schedule.
"The intermediate walls have been torn down. The whole bottom floor of this facility has been gutted. We put up intermediate walls. We poured some footers. We had to demolish all of the old lockers, which was a job in itself."
Leach and his crews finished pouring concrete risers last week.
"It's all downhill from there," he said.
Adjacent to the Shewey Athletics Building along Third Avenue is the Pruett Training Complex and the Dunfee Weight Room, a 13,000-square foot training facility that was completed in July 2006.
That project set the stage for these renovations because it freed space for one of the most anticipated parts of this project -- a 130-man video room complete with 24-inch seats arranged in theater-style rows.
"We're meeting all over the place right now and have been since I got here," Snyder said. "We're in offices, we're in closets, we're just about everywhere we can find a meeting room. We're going to have a first-class team meeting room now."
"The 24-inch seat is the widest seat you can get," Morehouse added. "The athletes are getting bigger, stronger and faster. We want something that is useful and comfortable for them."
The stair-stepped seating arrangement will give everyone a clear view of the game film, which will be transmitted to a pair of state-of-the-art plasma screens from a pair of high-resolution projectors (one of each on each side of the room).
"It's like going to the movies," said Snyder, who noted the old video room will become a computer lab. "If you get 145 guys in there, it's hard to see over all of the heads."
Eight position-specific meeting rooms will have the same arrangement but with fewer seats. Two of those rooms can be made into one larger room by removing a partition.
Morehouse said Michigan-based Oakwood Sports will construct the expanded and reconfigured locker room, which is 800 square feet bigger.
"The way it is set up now, the lockers will surround the perimeter of the locker room," Morehouse said. "There will be four quadrants, two lockers wide, in each part of the locker room.
"The reason being, we want to keep the middle of the locker room as open as possible. The turf room is no longer there. That's where they used to meet before the game and at halftime.
"We will have dry erase boards on each end. The coaches can talk to the players, offense on one end and defense on the other. When they get done meeting with their position coaches and coordinators, then Coach Snyder can bring them to the middle and talk to them as one before he takes them out on the field."
Oakwood Sports handled similar projects at Kentucky and Louisville, which partially inspired the renovations at Marshall.
There will be 118 lockers, 13 more than before.
"We now have enough lockers to house every player," Worner said. "Before, a few of the guys had to double up."
Snyder said each locker will be "like a little house in its own." Each one will feature a place for the student-athletes to plug in their cell phones and portable media players.
Other amenities include padded seats inside the lockers and individual blowers to warm up and dry out gloves and shoes. There will be additional storage areas for equipment and valuables, plus cubbyholes for books and other items.
There also will be a mail slot on each locker, where coaches, tutors and other officials can drop off letters, reminders and other papers.
"I think our players are going to be very excited about what they see when everything is finished," Snyder said.
HUNTINGTON -- From his second-floor office, Marshall Coach Mark Snyder can hear the banging and buzzing of hammers pounding and saws cutting.
He doesn't mind the noise, especially when he thinks about what those sounds will produce.
"It's going to be a top-notch facility," Snyder said of the Shewey Athletics Building, which is undergoing ground-level renovations.
The 16-year-old red brick building was completed in 1992, one year after Edwards Stadium opened. The building, which houses the football program, is adjacent to the north end of the stadium.
It was considered to be an upper-echelon facility at a time when Marshall belonged to NCAA Division I-AA.
However, the university moved to Division I-A five years later, initially joining the Mid-American Conference in 1997 and switching to Conference USA in 2005.
"We have needed these renovations for a long time," said Scott Morehouse, Marshall's associate athletic director for game operations and facilities. "When this building was built, it was built for a (Division) I-AA program."
"We're in an arms race," Snyder added.
Morehouse said he approached Snyder two years ago and asked the coach what he needed to take the program to the next level. The main thing, Snyder told Morehouse, was creating a specific area where the players can meet to watch film and focus on it.
That conversation kick-started the project at the Shewey Athletics Building, which also holds the athletic department's top-level administrative offices.
Next came the planning, which primarily involved Morehouse and head equipment manager Rich Worner.
Morehouse and Worner visited opponents' facilities at away games. They also took trips to Kentucky, LSU and Louisville.
"We would look at what they did and were doing, then think about what we could do to enhance our program," Morehouse said.
"We would ask them, 'Hey, what works for you and what doesn't work for you? If you could do it over, what would you change? What would you add? What would you take away?' We just went down there and brainstormed with those folks."
Morehouse and Worner took the good and bad from those discussions and visits to form the foundation for their plans, which called for a larger, improved locker room; a theater-style video room; a set of smaller, position-specific meeting rooms; and a players' lounge.
The cost is $1.185 million.
David Steele, who is Marshall's associate athletic director for administration and business, said the university raised the money through private donations and the facility enhancement fees included in ticket prices.
"It was pretty much a 50-50 split," Steele said.
Marshall began charging a facility enhancement fee of $3 per football ticket and $1 per men's basketball ticket when it joined Conference USA three years ago.
Steele said two years worth of the revenue from that fee went toward the renovations, which began April 28 and are expected to be completed by Aug. 1 or sooner.
"I look forward to being well ahead of that," said project superintendent Jimmy Leach of Huntington-based E.P. Leach and Sons Inc. "We're looking at mid- to late July. It all depends on the materials coming in. As far as the work, we're ahead of schedule.
"The intermediate walls have been torn down. The whole bottom floor of this facility has been gutted. We put up intermediate walls. We poured some footers. We had to demolish all of the old lockers, which was a job in itself."
Leach and his crews finished pouring concrete risers last week.
"It's all downhill from there," he said.
Adjacent to the Shewey Athletics Building along Third Avenue is the Pruett Training Complex and the Dunfee Weight Room, a 13,000-square foot training facility that was completed in July 2006.
That project set the stage for these renovations because it freed space for one of the most anticipated parts of this project -- a 130-man video room complete with 24-inch seats arranged in theater-style rows.
"We're meeting all over the place right now and have been since I got here," Snyder said. "We're in offices, we're in closets, we're just about everywhere we can find a meeting room. We're going to have a first-class team meeting room now."
"The 24-inch seat is the widest seat you can get," Morehouse added. "The athletes are getting bigger, stronger and faster. We want something that is useful and comfortable for them."
The stair-stepped seating arrangement will give everyone a clear view of the game film, which will be transmitted to a pair of state-of-the-art plasma screens from a pair of high-resolution projectors (one of each on each side of the room).
"It's like going to the movies," said Snyder, who noted the old video room will become a computer lab. "If you get 145 guys in there, it's hard to see over all of the heads."
Eight position-specific meeting rooms will have the same arrangement but with fewer seats. Two of those rooms can be made into one larger room by removing a partition.
Morehouse said Michigan-based Oakwood Sports will construct the expanded and reconfigured locker room, which is 800 square feet bigger.
"The way it is set up now, the lockers will surround the perimeter of the locker room," Morehouse said. "There will be four quadrants, two lockers wide, in each part of the locker room.
"The reason being, we want to keep the middle of the locker room as open as possible. The turf room is no longer there. That's where they used to meet before the game and at halftime.
"We will have dry erase boards on each end. The coaches can talk to the players, offense on one end and defense on the other. When they get done meeting with their position coaches and coordinators, then Coach Snyder can bring them to the middle and talk to them as one before he takes them out on the field."
Oakwood Sports handled similar projects at Kentucky and Louisville, which partially inspired the renovations at Marshall.
There will be 118 lockers, 13 more than before.
"We now have enough lockers to house every player," Worner said. "Before, a few of the guys had to double up."
Snyder said each locker will be "like a little house in its own." Each one will feature a place for the student-athletes to plug in their cell phones and portable media players.
Other amenities include padded seats inside the lockers and individual blowers to warm up and dry out gloves and shoes. There will be additional storage areas for equipment and valuables, plus cubbyholes for books and other items.
There also will be a mail slot on each locker, where coaches, tutors and other officials can drop off letters, reminders and other papers.
"I think our players are going to be very excited about what they see when everything is finished," Snyder said.
What sort of crap is this?? Why would anyone sink over a million bucks into a facility that was "top notch" just 16 years ago?? Why is so much money spent on athletics in the first place; what about the education concept?? Hello?? Is anybody home??
