Introducing the Sutton Sports Performance Center and the Shah Basketball Complex. Follow this link to the Wake Forest Photo Stories page on these new sports facilities.

 

 

Today, a ribbon-Cutting ceremony for the brand new Sutton Sports Performance Center and Shah Basketball Complex marked a new beginning for athletics at Wake Forest. Generous support for many years from both Ben Sutton and Mit Shah has made it possible to offer these exceptional resources to the student-athletes, coaches and staff.

The new facilities are centrally located within more than 100,000 square feet of buildings with 725 tins of steel and 5,000 cubic yards of concrete. This four-level Sutton performance center is connected to the McCreary Football Field house making it easier for athletes to transition from the field to weight rooms or meetings. 

In addition to strength and conditioning facilities dedicated for football and men’s and women’s basketball, there is a strength and training area shared by men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, track & field, men’s and women’s golf, field hockey and volleyball.

The new Shah Basketball Complex connects with the Sutton Center, adding another 24,000 square feet of facilities for athletes. It includes a regulation court with seven goals dedicated to the men’s team, and a new gym for the women’s team. Both teams no longer have to drive to the Lawrence Joel Veterans Coliseum for practice; everything is now at their fingertips. Within the complex is also 6,000 square feet dedicated to strength and conditioning for both teams and easy access to sports medicine and the cryotherapy chamber. 

The Christan McCreary Nutrition Center helps to fuel student-athletes around the clock. “With student-athlete schedules, it can be difficult to refuel properly,” said Director of Sports Nutrition Kate Ruley.

“Before the nutrition area opened, our athletes would have to go to other dining areas on campus. Many wouldn’t have had time to do that before class. Now they can refuel where they train with foods to help their brains and bodies recover. Already, I’m hearing feedback that our athletes are more alert and better able to focus on their academics as a result of the convenient options for quick nutrition.”

In addition to meeting nutritional needs, athletes from all sports socialize, study and relax in the Nutrition Center. Special features include a smoothie bar, gluten-free area and soft seating.

Read more from this Wake Forest News article by Kim McGrath, Steve Shutt & Jay Garneau here.

The Wake Forest board of trustees were able to see the new facility before the UNC game this weekend.

You can view all the pictures here

Wake Forest University’s new production studio facility for athletic telecasts on the ACC Network (NYSE: DIS) is hidden away at one of the athletic department’s major playing venues. It’s in plain sight. But if you didn’t know it was there, you’d have to read a tiny plate on a ubiquitous concrete wall spot to find it. Otherwise, it just looks like a baseball clubhouse – no windows or any obvious sign of a television studio.

The tiny plate outside the former visitors’ clubhouse off the right-field line at David F. Couch Ballpark is the only indication that a television studio facility – not a locker room with showers – is on the other side of the concrete blocks. And you’d have to be a few steps from the sign to read it.

For the launching of the ACC Network, which debuted Thursday, Wake Forest built the 3,100-square-foot studio facility in the former baseball clubhouse to coordinate and produce telecasts of all Demon Deacon sports for the new network. Wake Forest built two production rooms in the clubhouse so that two events can be produced at the same time from the site. The athletic department has facilities at BB&T (NYSE: BBT) Field and Joel Coliseum that can handle football and basketball telecasts.

The full story by John Brasier at Triad Business Journal can be found here.

The facility is named for prominent local physician and philanthropist Dr. Harold Pollard. He was an instrumental leader in the tennis community, volunteered many hours to tennis events in the city, and helped to facilitate the Winston-Salem Open being a successful and enjoyable event.    

The $3 million-plus Harold Pollard Center – an air-conditioned hospitality facility with places to relax with food, drink and three tiers of outdoor seating along Court No. 2. 

Mike Odom, an associate athletic director at Wake Forest, said the Pollard Center also was planned to be used as a hospitality venue for football games. The tennis center is next door to BB&T Field. The tournament had a temporary VIP facility in past years. 

More from this Triad Business Journal piece can be found here.