New Sanford Coyote Sports Center has its flaws
After years of planning and building, the Sanford Coyote Sports Center was recently opened for public viewing. As a student-athlete for USD, I definitely agree that the arena is a huge step-up from previous years; however, nothing is perfect and there are many aspects of the new center that may be functional, but aren’t necessarily practical.
The building mainly houses the new basketball and volleyball arena, but several other amenities for student athletes are included such as sports science classrooms, a state-of-the-art weight room, a newly equipped training room, multiple practice courts and locker rooms. Overall, the response from the public seems to be positive. With the new features of the sports center, the building is impressive from an outsider’s point of view.
One of the most improved sections is the weight room, which is used daily by athletes in every USD sport. The new weight room has more, higher-end equipment. This allows for athletes to greatly improve their strength.
Although the amount of equipment and greater size of the weight room is an improvement, there’s a major problem with the new weight room: there is too much stuff crammed in there. It’s extremely difficult to move around in and find extra room or have more than one team working out at once.
Being in the weight room with multiple teams is overwhelming and the room should’ve either been bigger, or have less equipment inside.
Another downside to the sports center is the placement of the training room. While the training room now has hot tubs, ice baths and other nice amenities, it’s a lot further from the Dome than the old training room.
While this is beneficial to basketball and volleyball, other teams have a much harder time reaching the area. The placement of the training room should’ve been better coordinated to convenience everyone.
There are also some small design aspects I would’ve done differently. For example, the floors were left as concrete. While this isn’t terrible, I can’t help but think about the dirt and water that will be tracked in.
Another design issue I noticed occurred at YoteFest when hundreds of students were attempting to enter the building. There are multiple sets of doors leading into the entrance, and this makes entering more difficult and crowded, especially when you consider those that are handicapped and are trying to squeeze through tiny and crowded doorways.
Stepping away from the negatives, one of the greatest things about the new sports center is that it gives certain teams access to better training facilities. Before, both the basketball and volleyball teams were crammed into dark corners of the DakotaDome. The volleyball court was only accessible by walking across the football field, walking up a set of stairs and crossing through the weight room. Both teams now have plenty of room to train on both the game court and several practice courts.
While this is great for those teams, other teams didn’t receive anything with the building of the sports center.
Between the SCSC and recent renovations, such as the new outdoor track and soccer stadium, many teams received brand new training facilities. While the basketball teams were given brand new locker rooms with lounges along with the new practice and game courts, other teams are left with sub-par training facilities.
For example, neither the golf team nor the tennis team have locker rooms. Instead of their own practice area, the softball team shares the football field most of the year. As a member of the swim team, I know we’ve had to swim in extremely shallow water due to pipe issues. Sometimes there have been chemical imbalances as well that made us unable to practice. While I realize money doesn’t grow on trees, it would have been nice if some of the money used on details were used for actual necessities.
There are tons of tiny details added to the sports center. USD logos are plastered all over; from each individual seat in the stadium to each individual weight in the weight room. I can’t help but wonder how much money simple details like this cost. I believe that some of the money spent on impractical things could have gone to a better cause.
Ultimately, the sports center will widely benefit the university. Whether it’s by drawing in bigger crowds, attracting the attention of possible recruits or aiding in the improvement of USD sports teams, the SCSC is a huge improvement from before.
It is incredibly nice that the new arena was built specifically for athletes at USD; however, there are a few little things that could have been coordinated better.
