WILMINGTON — Wilmington College’s Center for Sport Sciences has won the 2016 Citation Award presented by American School and University magazine.
Instantly a signature campus facility when it opened in August 2015, the center is highlighted in the magazine’s September issue, which features its 2016 Architectural Portfolio. The CSS took the top prize in the Sports Stadiums/Athletic Facilities category, which also recognized seven other facilities from around the country, including one from the University of Oklahoma.
Comments from the jury included: “Interiors are interesting and innovative, as are the programming and partnerships.”
MSA Architects designed the Center for Sport Sciences, which, this spring also graced the pages of Athletic Business Magazine’s “Architectural Showcase” issue when it was selected as one of 61 state-of-the-art facilities in all of athletics for 2016.
What makes the facility so functionally distinct is the presence of four commercial medical offices: Beacon Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, Chiropractic Care of Cincinnati, CMH Regional Health System’s imaging and sports medicine center, and Drayer Physical Therapy Institute.
Terry Rupert, vice president for athletic administration, called the Center “a total sport facility like no other” at the NCAA Division III level. “The Center directly is impacting well over half of our student body as they engage in their academic, athletic and recreational pursuits, and is an especially appealing attraction for prospective students.”
The Center for Sport Sciences is home to WC’s nationally prominent athletic training program and other sport sciences, and, with its 40-by-40-yard, indoor turf field and related athletics amenities, also accommodates training for essentially all of the College’s 20 varsity sports teams, in addition to giving students additional options for co-curricular and recreational activities.
The sport sciences portion of the facility includes a 3,000-square-foot, athletic training center with such amenities as two in-ground hydrotherapy pools, electrical muscle stimulators, and cryo-compression and ultrasound units.
Also, state-of-the-art classrooms, labs, a recruit room and faculty offices are located in WC’s wing. The CSS is situated within easy access of WC’s contiguous sports venues.
The Center’s 17,400 square-foot sport training facility provides for an all-indoor area with an artificial turf surface. The complex’s west end opens to an outdoor, lighted training field with an artificial turf surface for multiple sports, intramurals and other recreational activities.
