The Red and Black

Issue date: 6/28/07 Section: News

Media Credit: KRISTEN BOYD The new annex located next to Stegeman Coliseum on Carlton Street features new weight rooms, exercise equipment and training facilities for several University teams. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: KRISTEN BOYD Exercise bikes are abundant in the new facility, which is almost finished. [Click to enlarge]

The days when Suzanne Yoculan directed traffic are no more.

When the new Stegeman Coliseum Annex and Practice Facility is completed, the gymnastics coach will have enough space to conduct smoother and safer practices. Yoculan won't have to direct where each gymnast needs to be without fear of two of them crashing into each other.

"I was like a traffic controller," Yoculan said. "If you were dismounting the beam, you had to make sure no one was tumbling or else you would hit them on the head."

This $30 million practice facility will be the new home of the men's and women's basketball teams and the gymnastics team. The 120,000 square foot building is connected to Stegeman Coliseum and provides an easy access for the three teams housed there.

With the new gymnastics center, all the equipment will be spread out to create more space and save time in practice - unlike the previous setup at the Ramsey Center.

"From a safety standpoint, it's well equipped," Yoculan said. "There's a lot more space for the girls. We didn't have a big enough gym before."

Included in the new practice gym will be a 24-seat spectator area for practices. The floor mats, which are traditionally blue, were special ordered to be red - something Yoculan said she is thrilled about.

Murals of every first team All-American Gym Dog will be in the gymnasium as well as a specially made bronze gymnastics statue.

"(Our facility) was not in the top of the country before," Yoculan said. "This changes things drastically. It's now No. 1."

The building will include two practice basketball courts - one each for the men's and women's teams.

"It means a lot on practical terms," said men's basketball coach Dennis Felton. "We were in need of a facility that would accommodate the basketball team as a place to come and work every day. Just the actual court availability is a precious thing."

Accommodations were not easily met for the basketball teams before. If an outside event was scheduled at Stegeman Coliseum, the teams had to work around that time frame.

"When we had graduations or other things in the coliseum, we had to take the practice courts down," said Charles Whittemore, associate athletic director of facilities.

For gymnastics, it's simply more convenient. "We would practice at Ramsey but compete at the Coliseum. It's been a difficult situation but now the convenience is going to be incredible," said Yoculan.

The facility will also contain film rooms, lounges, coaches' offices and locker rooms for each team.

The lounges will be equipped with plasma screen and LCD televisions and each team's film room will have leather chairs and wide projection screen.

"It sends a real strong, tangible message of how serious we are in building Georgia basketball into something real special," Felton said.

The building will also contain a satellite athletic training room and an estimated 18,000 square foot weight training facility for all the Olympic sports.

"We provided good facilities for all sports but what we did not have was a weight room that met the needs of all of our sports," said Whittemore.

It's the type of facility that will give Georgia an advantage in recruiting.

"In the past we downplayed (the facilities), and we emphasized our strengths. Now we'll be able to emphasize our facilities," Yoculan said.

Felton has already been able to use the annex as a recruiting tool. "Once we had drawings to show (recruits) that it would be a spectacular facility - it started to make an impression," said Felton.

Construction began in February of 2006 and was initially scheduled to be completed at the end of June 2007. However, the timetable was pushed back and Whittemore said he doesn't expect the building to be finished before the middle of August.

The facility's grand opening is scheduled for Aug. 30-31.

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