Holy Cross Crusaders

“Our outdoor facilities are in pretty good shape, right now, but with the indoor facilities, we were way behind the times in regards to locker rooms and offices, just to keep up with our peers in our conference across the county,” Pizzi adds. “So, we upgraded our equipment room; and then the old recreation center, which was part of this facility, was gutted and turned into office space. The football staff now has meeting rooms for all of their position players; they have the space to do what they need to do. Coaches are not sharing offices like they were in the past. They have their own spaces where they can meet with parents and talk to them about the school; they can meet with their staff, or their current student/athletes, or plan practices and get ready for games. In addition, there’s a large auditorium, so now we can have large meetings in there; there’s a basketball film room that the teams use at halftime.” Another plus is the way the new complex solves many of the Athletic Department’s scheduling challenges. “The way we work on campus, we can’t have practices during the day, between the hours of nine and three,” Pizzi explains. “That’s when students are going to class, and the expectation is that they go to those classes and we don’t schedule practices during those class times. So, our support staff gets taxed all at the same time – our equipment managers, our sports medicine, our facilities staff - everybody’s getting hit at the same time. So, a big one for us is the indoor practice facility and the adjacent practice court that we added. It’s about nine or ten thousand square feet. So, now we can have basketball practice going on at the same time – one in the arena and one in the practice court, whereas before, you’d have to go: 3:30-5:30, Team 1; 5:30-7:30, Team 2; 7:30-9:30, Team 3.” In addition, there are new indoor practice facilities that feature artificial turf - a definite advantage in Massachusetts winters. “We’re getting kids in from inclement weather and we Keeping you running at your peak. National Forklift & Backup Power Systems 1.888.691.8100 • www.concentricusa.com Engineering Uptime.