5 highlights of OU’s new facilities
For nearly two hours Sunday afternoon, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione gave the media a tour of the new studentathlete facilities in the south end zone of the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Here are five highlights of the new construction.
Football players’ lounge
Castiglione described the new construction as the “Players’ House.” If that’s the case, the lounge is most certainly the facility’s living room. The room is plastered in giant photo collages of the Sooners in action with the team motto, “We Too Deep” stretched across one wall. The center of the room is filled with slate gray sofas, sectionals and chairs, and there’s a large flat screen TV on the wall. In the back of the room is a mini-kitchen area filled to the brim with snacks and supplements. Tucked around a corner is a crimson barbershop chair with a white interlocking OU on the back.
Football locker rooms
Accessible directly from the players’ lounge is the high-tech locker room. Scattered around the room are relics of the football program, including championship rings, bowl watches, the Sugar Bowl trophy and Red River Rivalry Golden Hat. Each player has his own locker labeled with an ornate graphic that has his name, position and hometown along with a photo and his number.
Recovery pool
Sound from the continuously falling waterfall whooshes out as soon as the door opens. Inside is a futuristic two-tiered recovery pool, filled with icy cold water and lit with purple, blue and red lights. A giant, silver OKLAHOMA sign is affixed to the back wall, and that waterfall falls just below the sign and into the second tier of the pool.
Strength and conditioning complex
In addition to two outdoor practice fields, there’s also a 70-yard indoor turf connected to weight room. The indoor turf, which can be extended outside thanks to a set of retractable glass walls, is far more sophisticated than meets the eye, beginning with a slightly raised path in the turf. Beneath this track is a force plate developed by Zybek Sports — the first one installed at a college program. It can measure a range of analytics, and every 10 yards is a set of lasers used to precisely measure 40-yard dash times.
Equipment room
The equipment room received a huge boost from the renovations, growing from 2,000 square feet to 9,000 square feet. The front area, visible to players and coaches, has rows of football helmets from other NCAA Division I programs. So far, the Sooners have 98 of 130 Division I helmets in the collection. The back storage area contains the bulk of the inventory, and there’s a place for the team equipment semi-trucks to back in for loading before road trips.