Florida Gators make commitment to 21 sports in new Heavener Center

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — There is still fresh paint on the walls. Billy Napier’s office still has his old framed No. 19 Furman jersey sitting on the ground waiting to be hung. The Florida Gators are still moving into the brand new $85 million Heavener Football Training Center, but Executive Associate Athletics Director for Internal Affairs, Chip Howard, made it clear: this building is for every student-athlete at UF.

To be fair, the facility was built with the football team in mind and much of it will be for the football players, coaches, and staff. However, there was an active desire to reach more than just one of the 21 teams on campus.

As you walk into the space you’re greeted by what Scott Stricklin called the new “living room” for Florida Gators Athletics.

To the left is a lounge area that leads to a resort-style pool, with volleyball and basketball courts for all 524 UF student-athletes. There are televisions, a barber shop, a virtual reality room, a pool table, and zero gravity massage chairs.

The biggest change in the lives of the athletes will be to the right of the lobby in the dining hall.

Feeding the Gators

Football and basketball are the money makers on any college campus. Those scholarships are full rides that include tuition, books, meal plans, stipends, etc. Not every sport offers a full ride.

Baseball, for instance, only has 11.7 scholarships for 25 players. That means a student-athlete will get a certain dollar amount, of which most would likely go towards tuition and books.

Part of the fundraising that Florida did was to ensure that all 524 student-athletes at UF would have a meal plan and a place to eat three meals a day on campus. That area, the Gary Condron Dining Hall, will be open for the first time this week.

“This whole athlete area is going to be open Wednesday (August 23),” Howard said during a media tour of the facility. “We’re going to serve three meals a day out of the dining hall beginning at 7:00 am on Wednesday morning. Monday through Friday. We’re going to be able to feed all of our athletes.” 

That will certainly be a welcome change to say a track and field, baseball, or women’s soccer student-athlete who may not have been on a meal plan before. It shows Florida’s commitment to more than just the two sports that generate revenue, rather to all the student-athletes that compete for the school.

A unique student-athlete experience

Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, Howard, and other executives at Florida traveled the country to look at facilities. They pulled some aspects that they liked but wanted to create something uniquely Florida.

“This all student-athlete amenity area,” Howard said when asked what his favorite part was. “Most of the time when you go to a football facility or a football complex, it’s football only. What we thought was, how do we make the entire program better? And this all-athlete amenity area, coupled with the Hawkins Center, it’s unapparelled in college sports for what we can do to help our student-athletes.

“I think what’s uniquely Florida is the swimming pool. The outdoor amenity area for the student-athletes to relax and hang out. When you come here, you could have a Heisman Trophy candidate eating next to a gold medal winner. The interaction that we’re going to see in this all-athlete area is going to be exciting.”