The RoundHouse | 2/12/2018 11:30:00 AM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
A tour of Charles Koch Arena's offices by necessity includes a tour of closets and storage rooms.
 
In 2003, Wichita State used those many of those spaces for paper, envelopes and coffee machines. In 2018, those spaces are where assistant coaches make phone calls, watch video and work on computers.
 
"We're in a very significant space crunch," Wichita State athletic director Darron Boatright said. "We have multiple people with offices now in areas that were built to be storage closets, break room . . . we have women's basketball, with their director of operations, in a storage room. Both golf assistant (coaches) office in what was designed to be a closet."
 
In the Barry and Paula Downing Academic Learning Center, a tutor works out of a room designed to store books and the three tutoring rooms are not nearly enough to keep up with demand. Temporary dividers occupy one corner of the room to give student-athletes a place to study alone.  
 
"Today's student-athletes – that's what they want," academic coordinator Andrew Moses said. "They want as much privacy as possible."
 
While fund-raising is not complete, those space crunches in academic areas, offices and the weight room in Koch Arena should begin to ease over the next year.
 
Boatright said he expects to start on a $3-million Phase V project at Eck Stadium-Home of Tyler Field, highlighted by a new weight room and clubhouse, in late May or June.
 
 
He can also see the finish line for the $13-million Student-Athlete Success Center, to be built adjacent to Koch Arena. The timeline for that building, which will house an expanded study hall, academic offices, administrative offices and a track and field weight room, could follow the Eck Stadium project quickly, depending on fund-raising.
 
"We anticipate breaking ground on the baseball project upon completion of the 2018 season," he said. "We would hope both of them could be started on in the summer. We feel confident baseball, for sure, will. We hope that the Student-Athlete Success Center will."
 
Boatright said Wichita State has $2.7 for the Eck Stadium project and $10.7 million committed for the Student-Athlete Success Center. Recently, Boatright and director of athletic development Alex Johnson hosted a group of potential donors for a men's basketball practice and tour of the arena, offices and academic areas to push toward the goal.
 
"We can't start construction until we have all funds committed," Boatright said. "They can be committed with a pledge and a five-year commitment to pay off that pledge."
 
Wichita State outgrew Koch Arena, renovated and expanded from Levitt Arena in 2003, quickly and began putting new coaches and graduate assistants into storage areas and break rooms. In 2003, Wichita State housed 223 student-athletes. Now it is around 305. The increase in full-time employees and graduate assistants is around 40 percent – 75.5 in 2003 to 105.5 in 2018, according to Johnson.
 
That growth comes from NCAA changes allowing more coaches and from an increase in student-athletes from additional scholarship or walk-on opportunities.
 
"We're now fully funded and fully staffed," Boatright said.
 
Moving sports to the Student-Athlete Success Center will allow men's and women's basketball and volleyball to double their office space on Koch Arena's second floor. All three sports will gain a conference room and offices for their directors of operations and others.
 
"There's one conference room (located in the athletic director's area) in the athletic department," Boatright said. "There's no other meeting rooms for coaches meetings or film study, and nobody wants to come to the AD's office."
 
When Wichita State built its weight room underneath in Koch Arena as part of the 2003 renovations, the Shockers left rundown space under Cessna Stadium to enter a new era for strength and conditioning.
 
Fifteen years later, weight training is well into another era and Wichita State is just a few months away expanding its weights and conditioning facilities.
 
Those additional training areas will move Wichita State closer to its competition in the American Athletic Conference. On Tuesday, the Shockers played at Memphis, which opened a $20-million practice facility for the men's basketball team in November. The Memphis building includes a weight room to keep pace with the national trend to build sport-specific weight rooms.
 
"That's common-place in this league, and in the upper leagues," strength and conditioning coach Kerry Rosenboom said. "In basketball, anywhere up to the top-100 teams you'll see more have men's and women's only facilities. (In baseball), it's slowly picking up steam. If you don't have your own facility, you're going to lag behind the top 20, top 30 teams."
 
Wichita State's projects will reduce the demand on the Koch Arena facility by moving baseball, softball, golf and tennis to the Eck Stadium weight room. It will connect to the Bombardier Learjet Indoor Practice Facility and the project includes moving Wichita State's clubhouse to the third-base side of the stadium. The indoor workout facility was built in 2009 and work this summer will complete the vision for the improvements.
 
Track and field – the largest sport by head count – moves into the new building. Men's and women's basketball and volleyball will remain in the Koch Arena weight room.
 
"It definitely will make it easier for everybody to work around their practice schedule better, which is what most people try to do," Rosenboom said. "We try to get each team a time where they're the only ones allowed in the weight room as much as possible."
 
For more information, call the Wichita State athletic development office at (316) 978-7276.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.