NEWS

Wednesday night the Davidson lacrosse team will host VCU for the first athletic event in the new Davidson College Stadium.

The game comes roughly two and a half years after Davidson announced the ambitious plan to create new athletic facilities, most notably a new stadium and field house.

Davidson Lacrosse is making the move to the Davidson College Stadium and to Field 76 after beginning their season in Richardson Stadium.

The new stadium and field will be the home for Wildcat lacrosse and football. The official dedication for the facility is scheduled for April 20, the same day as the spring football game.

I’m sure there are a lot of folks out there who have driven, walked, jogged, or bicycled through campus at various times over the past 2+ years to watch the progress. For field hockey and baseball fans, we have watched the progress as we have cheered on our Wildcat scholar-athletes.

It is important to note that this is a lot more than a new stadium. The Game Changers Field House is, quite simply, a game changer. The new facility has locker rooms, strength and conditioning, sports medicine spaces, offices, meeting rooms, and more.

Last week, I got a sneak peek into the new facility thanks to a tour from Head Football Coach Scott Abell. Students had returned from Spring Break and scholar-athletes were using the new facility for their first training sessions.

Coaches and staff had moved into the new facility during Spring Break.

The Game Changers Field House has locker rooms for lacrosse, football, and field hockey. Davidson field hockey plays on the adjacent Carol Grotnes-Belk Turf Field.

If you enter the facility via the main lobby, you will be greeted by a larger-than-life new Davidson Wildcat logo. The lobby is named in honor of Rutledge Johnson ’05, who passed away in 2018. He was a Davidson Football scholar-athlete.

There is also a “Nutrition and Fueling” station that is open to all Davidson scholar-athletes. It features a wide variety of healthy choices of food and drinks.

The field house also has an incredible state of the art strength and conditioning facility, and it is big. Jan and John Bazos ’82 were the naming donors for the Sports Performance Center. The facility is big enough for entire teams to lift and work out at the same time, with rows upon rows of equipment.

The Davidson Sports Medicine team also has new workspaces, and the strength and conditioning coaches’ offices open out onto the sport performance center.

While everything in the building is new, the new things are meaningful to staff and not just the scholar-athletes. The gear/uniform cleaning facility has huge washers and dryers, and it also has an improved way to get the gear to the players. And as previously noted, the consolidation of locker rooms for three sports creates additional efficiency for Wildcat staff members.

On the outside of the hallway, there are rows upon rows of lockers. From the inside, the staff members can place the clean gear and uniforms in the corresponding cubbies. For greater detail, see the photos.

The football locker room is gift of the Sheridan Brothers and is dedicated to their teammates. Since a picture says a thousand words, you can see that it is state of the art. Of note, Coach Abell said that the locker room already had just a little bit of the “scent of a locker room” since team members had the option to start moving in the night before after the team was given their tour of the facility.

There are also offices, conference rooms, and meeting rooms. Most notably, there is a big room named “Gallery 18.” The gallery overlooks the stadium, with “box” views of the field.

Field 76 honors former Davidson Football Coach David J. Fagg, Class of ’58. Coach Fagg wore number 76 as a member of the Wildcat football team.

But wait, there’s more. Fans will likely not only take notice of “the new” everything but will likely love that while the stadium is designed to hold 5,000, there are 1200+ seat backs for additional comfort.

And speaking of comfort, the restroom facilities are huge in comparison to Richardson Stadium or even Belk Arena. The concessions and restrooms are conveniently located on the concourse level above the stadium seating.