HURRICANES’ SHELTER

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 long-awaited 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. But Jesse Marks, the school’s senior associate athletic director in charge of development, says the athletic program will continue to raise funds beyond its initial $34 million goal in order to outfit the facility with a video board and, of course, banners marking the football team’s five national championships.

“A lot of other schools have indoor facilities, and they could be outdated already. Ours is going to be state-of-the-art from the get-go,” Marks said. “You want to be able to host good recruiting events in here, so having proper lighting can really make this a first-class facility for our team. … incorporating our national championships. … To do all of that at the level that we need it to be wasn’t included in our $34 million budget, so we’ll keep going. … We’re going to make it the best it can be. That’s the goal.”

MIKE STOCKER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER University of Miami football coach Mark Richt checks out the Carol Soffer Football Indoor Practice Facility under construction on campus. Much like the Miami Dolphins’ ‘bubble,’ it's designed to allow the Hurricanes to practice regardless of the weather.

MIKE STOCKER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The facility, when completed, will have two practice fields, meeting rooms and coaches’ offices.