Click here for pictures of the Yoh Football Center
Recruiting top-quality football players to join a team with a 23-game losing streak is never easy. But with the new Yoh Football Center nearing completion, coach Carl Franks hopes that task will become a little less onerous.
"It makes an impact when a young man sees what kind of commitment the University has made toward his development as a football player," Franks said.
In this case, that commitment comes in the form of a four-floor, 70,000-square-foot facility, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for which is scheduled for Aug. 30, the night before Duke's home opener against East Carolina. The building is a $22 million gesture of support for a football program that badly needs victories.
Franks said the center was designed to be state-of-the-art, and added that the architects had visited football powerhouses like Florida and Virginia Tech, taking notes on their facilities.
"We don't want to build it so that it will be obsolete in 10 years," he said.
There's no doubt that the facility is, or will be, impressive.
The building has wide staircases designed for the ascent of dozens of football players at once. Then there are the oversize swivel chairs in the team meeting room--not to mention the dual projection screens and the partition that can be set up to turn the space into two separate meeting rooms, one for offense and one for defense. Duke football logos adorn everything from the carpets in the hallways to the spacious cherry lockers to the tiles around the SwimEx--a training facility equipped with underwater treadmills and jets of water for athletes to swim against.
Perhaps most noteworthy is the speed and agility room, which includes a miniature 40-yard field of artificial turf for players to practice running patterns on without damaging the actual field. It will also serve as a practice area in case of inclement weather, an option the team had been lacking. But the third floor's memorabilia room, designed to be a sort of museum of the Duke football tradition, and outdoor deck overlooking Wallace Wade Stadium are also impressive.
A second deck is located on the roof, and a similar view is available from a sitting room on the fourth floor near the head coach's office, where potential recruits or donors will be able to watch the game.
But Franks said his favorite floor was the first, which includes the tunnel leading onto the field, a 7,371-square-foot locker room, a still larger training and rehabilitation area, and a weight room big enough for the entire team to work out at once. Franks said the weight room would feature displays of Blue Devils past, like the third-floor memorabilia room.
The center also tries to provide for some of its players non-athletic needs. Player lockers include space for a laptop and books, and the second floor sports a player lounge and computer-equipped study area.
Construction on the building began in November 2000, and it will be dedicated Oct. 4. The $22 million cost was bankrolled primarily by a $5.5 million gift from Harold "Spike" Yoh, chair of the Board of Trustees, and his wife Mary Milus Yoh. The remaining three-quarters of the price tag came from about 750 other donors, more than half of whom were former football players.
Whether the center will successfully improve Duke's recruiting chances remains to be seen. But Franks said the current Blue Devils approved of it.
"The players are excited about moving into the building, and some of them have already snuck in there," he said.
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