Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
’Canes go inside
First practice held at new indoor facility.
CORAL GABLES — They laughed. They danced. And for the very first time in program history, the Miami Hurricanes practiced in the cool, air-conditioned comfort of their very own indoor facility.
On a steamy, sunny South Florida morning where temperatures approached 90 degrees, coach Mark Richt gave his team a treat, allowing them to work out inside UM’s new Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility for the first time on Friday.
Construction on the facility is still ongoing, but earlier this week, Miami athletic director Blake James said the school had been granted a temporary certificate of occupancy that would allow the team to use the facility. And so, even though there were no storm clouds in Coral Gables, the Hurricanes took advantage of the opportunity to get a real workout in in their new digs.
And everyone on hand — from school administrators and coaches to players and Carol Soffer herself — appeared thrilled with how the building had taken shape and how quickly it had come to fruition.
“For the first time in my head coaching career, I won’t have to worry about Plan B. This was super fun and I got a little emotional too when it first started, just seeing Carol loving it,” Richt said “It was awesome. When the horn blows and we go straight in here, it will be a big day too.”
Added James, “It’s a great day for the
University of Miami, for our athletic program, for the young men in our program, for all the people who have a passion and want to see us win ACC and national championships. This was a piece of the puzzle that was missing for us and one we knew we needed to get in place.”
While Friday marked Miami’s first official practice in the facility, the Hurricanes did get a sneak peek of the building on Thursday night when coaches brought the players in for a light walk-through.
The goal? Have them get used to the feel of artificial turf under their feet and get an idea of the dimensions in the building, including the space between the sidelines and endzones and the padded walls of the building surrounding the field. Those safety margins were put together by Richt himself during both the design and construction process.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Should I really go full speed, full blow at practice? I know I have the right safety margins. I know I did everything right, but day one, should I be doing that?’ ” he explained. “Because of that, I wanted them to get at least a little taste of it [Thursday night] so it wasn’t totally brand new.”
It may not have been “totally brand new” to the Hurricanes, but the players were certainly in awe of the 83,000-square-foot facility that houses two turf fields and is projected to cost approximately $40 million when completed.
“It was awesome. Way cooler inside. I really appreciate that. It really felt good to be here,” linebacker Shaq Quarterman said. “This has been a long project before even I got here. So it just feels good to see it come to pass and just be in here for the first time. … It’s not even fully done yet, but it’s amazing. They did their thing making sure that everything was good. Coach Richt took extra time to make sure the safety margins were even wider than they originally thought they would be. He did everything to the tee, to the letter.”
Added center Tyler Gauthier, “It’s definitely a game-changer. Being down here in this heat, you come out to a practice and you sweat [even when] you’re a recruit watching [practice]. It’s definitely nice to see this and know that there’s always this option to come in here to.”
Along with the practice area itself, the facility will include an additional 30,000 square feet of renovated office space for the Hurricanes football program. Coaches offices and team meeting rooms will be revamped. There will be a recruiting suite to host prospective players and their families. There will be space for Miami’s recruiting department, graduate assistants and quality control staffers. Even the team’s video staff will have its own space in which to work.
Some of that, plus a video board and branding inside the facility itself, are still works in progress, which is why, even as he celebrated the first practice in the building, Richt was still in fundraiser mode.
“I want to make this real clear. We’re not done with this project. We’re practicing in it, but we’ve still got a lot of branding to do. We’ve got things to do in the coaches offices and the football operations area. We are not done fundraising for this project,” said Richt, who along with his wife Katharyn donated $1 million to the facility. “We need at least $3 more million to make it the way it should be made. I always tell everybody, we’ve got one chance to do it right. Let’s do it right the first time. … Let’s go first class on everything and we have, on every single thing we’ve done in this building.”
For her part, Soffer, too, stressed the importance of continuing to raise money for the project, which was unveiled publicly in October 2016 when her family donated $14 million as the lead gift for the facility.
But like Richt, James and the rest of the Hurricanes, Soffer was beaming as Miami’s players ran drills, caught passes and celebrated their new home, a home, Soffer noted, that bears a woman’s name.
“It means a lot to me because usually most athletic departments, I would say every athletic department, has men’s names on the outside of buildings. It’s always been a boys club,” she said. “And as a woman, I feel very honored to be among the few, if any, that have this distinction. That makes me very proud because women should be involved with athletics. It’s not just about the men. So, I’m very proud of that.”