UM expects indoor practice facility will be ready in time for fall camp

CORAL GABLES — Less than a year ago, Mark Richt donned a hard hat, grabbed a shovel, and along with lead donor Carol Soffer, Miami athletic director Blake James and school president Julio Frenk, took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the school’s longawaited indoor practice facility.

Thursday, after the Hurricanes wrapped up their 11th practice of the spring, Richt again put on a hard hat. This time, he walked through a gate and onto the site of the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility. Around him, workers bustled about, continuing the construction efforts Miami expects will be completed in time for the start of fall camp in August.

“Functionally, it’s going to be awesome in so many areas and the beauty of it is going to be great,” Richt said. “Just the message that says, ‘We’re 100 percent, first-class in everything we do here and can develop our players as well as anybody in America.’ No one can say anything different now.”

For Richt, the $34 million, 83,000-square foot facility is a source of personal pride. A former quarterback at Miami, he and his wife Katharyn donated $1 million toward the project, which will include two turf fields, team meeting rooms and office space for Miami’s football coaches and support staff.

It will, on top of giving the Hurricanes somewhere to practice during inclement weather, also give the school some “wow” factor when hosting sought-after recruits, who usually have taken full stock of the indoor facilities across the country, Richt said.

“The whole world kept moving and we kind of stood still for a second, and now, we’re cranking up again and everybody knows it,” Richt said. “It’s blessing our recruiting and our players currently and it’s going to be a really fun place just to go to work every day. … The recruits know it’s going to be here when they get here … in the beginning, you recruit with a piece of paper or a video. Then over time, you show them this in the construction phase. Next year’s class will actually see it and not have to even wonder what it’s going to look like.”

At this point, Miami has raised $33.6 million dollars for the project, most of it coming in under a year.