While multiple improvements have already been made to the Richie Regan Recreation and Athletic Center, work continues on a number of additional projects.
As part of the University’s Pride & Excellence Campaign, an initiative created to enhance Seton Hall athletic facilities and resources, 14 varsity locker rooms are being thoroughly redesigned. Work is not expected to be completed until December.
Located at the site of the former student locker rooms—made obsolete by the opening of the new fitness center in January—the new varsity facilities will not only feature a pair of visiting team locker rooms, but they also will provide each Pirates athletic program with its own space for the first time in school history.
“It really puts us back in pace with the other teams in the league and the other facilities out there so our kids have the same conveniences everyone else has,” said Kevin Sponzo, associate athletics director for facilities and operations.
Each locker room will be equipped with personalized wooden lockers for each athlete, coaching spaces, WiFi, team graphics and audio/visual equipment for team meetings.
Rick Stainton, first year women’s soccer head coach, said his team had an exclusive locker room when he was with Farleigh Dickinson University last year but not when he came to Seton Hall. Stainton said that having a committed area for his team in the future will be of great benefit.
“The locker room is a huge asset for us,” Stainton said. “It’s just a commonplace that the team has never had…For them to dress it up, deck it out, it really does provide a lot for them.”
In addition to the lockers, the old location of the dance studio will be renovated into a team video room, complete with 40 leather chairs in amphitheater-style seating. There will be a new varsity weight room that will take the place of the former student fitness center. The spaces used for the current weight room will be replaced with an indoor practice field for the men’s and women’s golf teams.
Seton Hall Athletic Director Pat Lyons said the multimillion dollar project, financed entirely through the Pirate Blue Athletic Fund and at no cost to the University, furnishes a number of much needed upgrades to the athletic department.
“Since I’ve been [athletic director] here, I’ve said our biggest weakness, I thought, was facilities,” Lyons said. “Now three-and-a-half years later, I think we’ve done a great job as a department of not only eliminating that weakness, but now it’s a real strength for us.” Over the past 18 months, the Pride & Excellence Campaign has completed the 12,000 square foot fitness center, the Center for Sports Medicine, and the Charles W. Doehler Academic Center for Excellence, among other renovations.
Clayton Collier can be reached at clayton.collier@student.shu.edu.
