Miami Hurricanes new practice facility can withstand any category Hurricane
Talking with the Palm Beach Post’s Matt Porter Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt gave the beat reporter a tour and update on how the construction of the Carol Soffer practice facility is progressing.
Richt said about the Soffer Practice facility “From what I understand, there can be a category whatever hurricane going on and we can actually be practicing during a hurricane, that’s how sound this building’s going to be.” The new facility will be a game changer in recruiting and in the Miami Hurricanes ability to practice when lightning strikes.
Getting the Soffer facility built was one of the priorities when Richt was hired as the Miami Hurricanes Head Coach nearly 26 months ago. He has spearheaded the campaign and donated one million dollars of his own money towards the facility. Soffer’s sons donated $14 million towards the facility.
Per Susan Miller Degnan of the Miami Herald, the facility will be 100,000 square feet. It will have two turf fields. One will be 80 yards long and the other 40 yards long. The two fields will be a combined 81,000 square feet. Both will connect to the Squillante Strength and Conditioning Center.
An added plus is the sidelines of the indoor fields. There is expected to be 20 feet (or nearly seven yards) of safety margins. Richt told Porter that’s “more than most any building I’ve ever been in.”
The longer field is expected to be used by the skill position players and the shorter fields by the lineman during practice. The Coaches offices will be suspended from the steel ceilings above the linemen’s workout areas.
The Soffer Indoor Facility is being built on the current football practice area. The Hecht Athletic Center and Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence will be connected to the Soffer Facility.
Mark Richt gave a tour of the new facility via Facebook Live yesterday.
Getting to the indoor facility from the outdoor practice fields will be convenient
to Richt.
"“There’ll be doors that’ll roll up…We’ll be able to run right on the indoor practice field and continue practice without changing cleats, without missing a beat.”"
Porter reported that Miami had 22 practices on average affected by lightning delays. The entire process according to Porter could change a couple of times per Porter.
"“After hearing a lightning alarm, his players would have to jog off the field, change cleats for sneakers, walk a couple hundred feet to a gymnasium, “and then by the time you get into the gym they might say, ‘All clear,’” Richt said."
That conundrum will be over when the Soffer facility opens later this year. Richt said:
"“We’ll never have to change our cleats…If we do get an ‘all clear’ sign once we’re inside, all we’ve got to do is go right back outside and get back to work.”"
Another quirk of the new facility is the lighting. Porter relayed the system of lighting that the Soffer will have.
"“It won’t rely on banks of lights that hang from the ceiling, which, if broken by airborne footballs, could cause delays in practice (and cost money to replace). Instead, UM plans to brighten the building with a combination of natural outdoor lighting (via windows) and by shining “most of our lights up” to reflect onto the white ceiling."
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Miami is still about $1.2 million short of its goal of raising $34 million towards what they call the IPF. The building is expected to be completely enclosed by the end of June and the practice fields will be ready a month later.