Coach Tina McDavitt's field hockey team is used to 7 a.m. workouts during the spring. It's not ideal, but the football team uses the facility during the afternoon - that's the way it has been for years.
And because the fitness center is barely big enough for one team, the athletics department has had the unsavory job of juggling the schedules of each squad. For a university of 28 varsity teams and over 5,000 undergraduates, the athletics facility has more than reached its capacity.
But luckily for the students, coaches and administrators, relief is imminent.
On Sept. 4, President Lawrence Bacow announced plans for a $30 million athletics and fitness facilities expansion and renovation, thanks in part to a $10 million donation from Steve Tisch (A '71).
Construction on the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, which will be located between Cousens Gym and the Gantcher Center, will tentatively begin in November 2008 and should take close to three years to design and build, according Vice President of Operations John Roberto.
While Tufts has seen recent improvements to its athletics facilities - the track at Ellis Oval underwent a much-needed resurfacing in the summer of 2004, and Bello Field, an artificial turf surface for the field hockey and lacrosse teams, was unveiled that fall - the athletics center has fallen behind, as universities across the nation continue to outdo each other with state-of-the-art facilities.
Although Tufts has been aware of its deficiency in this area, renovation plans introduced in the late 1990s kept being pushed to the backburner.
"Way back when we built the Gantcher Center [in 1999], there was a larger plan at the time [but] only part of it got accomplished," Athletics Director Bill Gehling said. "Chase Gym, the Fitness Center and Gantcher were all part of that larger plan that wasn't completed. So we resurrected that plan and put together a new one, and the Tisch donation and some others put momentum behind it."
"The needs of the athletics facility had been discussed for a while," Roberto said. "The master plan years ago had multiple stages, and we only implemented three of those phases - we weren't able to take it any further. Two years ago, we did an update of the facilities master plan and identified places for renovation in terms of need."
Unlike other schools with fewer land constraints - like many of Tufts' NESCAC rivals located in rural New England - the location of Tufts' athletic facilities does not make expansions simple. Medford unfolds to the north and east, and the commuter rail tracks run to the south. It's easy to understand why it took a $10 million donation to get the ball rolling.
"It's not even Tufts' fault; we're so landlocked," McDavitt said. "Other schools in the league, like Middlebury and Colby, have so much land, so if they have the money they can keep building things. But if we want to build something, we have to get the money and find the space."
Although plans are still in the "preliminary design phase," according to Gehling, the focus of the project will be the expansion of the fitness center building towards College Ave., which will yield space for an appropriate main entrance and open up room for offices and bigger locker rooms on the lower level.
"Clearly the fitness center is not adequate to meet the needs of the university; the need goes well beyond the varsity athletes," Gehling said. "That's a high priority - maybe even the top priority ... The health and recreation facilities will have the biggest impact on the entire community."
The project may affect the entire community, but there are built-in benefits clearly for athletes, especially members of the swimming and diving, basketball and squash teams. The plan calls for a renovation of Cousens' basketball court to meet NCAA-regulated dimensions, the construction of an entirely new pool, and the conversion of Hamilton Pool into international-sized squash courts.
As it stands, the basketball court is approximately eight feet short of the NCAA standard, which prohibits Tufts from hosting any NCAA Tournament games (a waiver has been granted for regular-season and NESCAC Tournament games). In 2005-2006, the Jumbos lost the right to host a first-round NCAA Tournament game, and instead played on the road at SUNY Cortland.
According to Gehling, the university plans to rotate the court 90 degrees, remove the permanent seating, and use portable seating on the sides. The renovations will maintain the ambience of the gymnasium, which was built in the late 1930s and remains one of New England's most charming indoor facilities.
Unlike Cousens, which had its floor resurfaced five years ago, Hamilton Pool has remained more or less in its initial state since opening more than 60 years ago. As such, it only fits six narrow lanes for swim practices, forcing the programs to break up their workouts and limiting the number of open swim hours for other students.
The new pool is slated to be three times the size of Hamilton Pool - just short of an Olympic-sized facility - and will be erected in an area adjacent to Chase Gym, which is currently being used for storage.
Hamilton Pool's current location will be turned into international-sized squash courts. Although Tufts currently has courts, they are American-sized, whichprohibits the teams from hosting tournaments and forces them to play a majority of their dual matches on the road. They hold their practices at Belmont Hill, a local middle school.
"It was prohibitively expensive to expand the courts where they are because of structures in the wall," Gehling said. "It would have cost millions of dollars. We struggled without regulation courts for a long time. This will allow the squash programs to come back home."
In addition to its varsity teams, the athletics department itself will benefit from the renovation, as the expansion will include new offices. Halligan Hall currently houses most of the athletics department administrators and coaches, but it's far from ideal, as some coaches have offices in other locations, and they share the space with many engineering and computer science professors.
"The athletics department needs its own area," McDavitt said. "Right now, we're cramped for space, and being with other coaches will be great."
According to Roberto, the university has not yet hired an architect but is in the process of conducting interviews in order to make a selection.
"This is a renovation as well as a new construction project," Roberto continued. "We've got to come up with a plan that allows us to expand."
