CCU holds groundbreaking ceremony for indoor practice facility
The project is being funded, in part, through lead gifts from Conway Medical Center with Novant Health and Joe Moglia, CCU’s chair of athletics, executive director for football, and executive advisor to the president.
The facility will include two filming platforms, restrooms, storage rooms, and an athletic training space that will be accessible from the interior and exterior practice areas. The space will also be used for practice for various Chanticleer athletic teams and will include an area for student clubs, organizations, and recreation. The University plans to host various campus and community events within the facility as well.
Designed by Garvin Design Group, the facility is being built by Contract Construction. It will be the first Construction Manager at Risk project ever undertaken by CCU. Construction is expected to begin January 2024 with an anticipated completion date of late Spring 2025. The groundbreaking event also served as a lead-in to this weekend’s football home opener versus Jacksonville State University, which will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9, in Brooks Stadium.
Excerpts from the groundbreaking ceremony:
Matt Hogue, vice president for intercollegiate athletics and University recreation
“I want to welcome everybody to Coastal Carolina University as we unveil and launch the latest addition to the Teal Nation landscape. This has been a long time coming. You’re going to hear from several very important folks today about how important this is to our University, to our athletic program, and, most importantly, to the student-athletes and the students who will utilize this in the coming years.”
Michael T. Benson, D.Phil., CCU president
“What a great day! I want to thank our board of trustees for their support from the get-go. I want to thank my predecessor, Dave DeCenzo. Garvin Design Group is one of the best around and has done a beautiful design on the project. We’re very happy to welcome Contract Construction. We thank them for helping us through the process. And I promise you it’s going to produce a beautiful facility that’s going to impact our campus for years and years to come. It does not happen without our friends at Conway Medical Center, and I want to thank them. The partnership we’ve developed with them is so key on so many levels. Coach Joe Moglia has done so much for our University, for our community. We’re not here today without Joe Moglia. This project is for our students, for our community. This is for all of our student-athletes, for our students, for our University.”
Paul M. Richardson Jr., MD, ABIM, chief medical officer and vice president of medical education, Conway Medical Center with Novant Health
“It’s a pleasure to be here this morning. We are very proud of our partnership with Coastal through the Conway Medical Center College of Health and Human Performance. We’re already seeing transformational changes. We’re going to transform healthcare and healthcare workforce in this area, this county, and this state. We’re already seeing the fruits of that labor … you ain’t seen nothing yet. We’re just getting started. It’s wonderful to be here and share this with you all.”
Kelly Moore, executive director of the Chanticleer Athletic Foundation
“The mission of the Chanticleer Athletic Foundation is to provide financial support for our entire athletic department. That means our students, that means our coaches, that means our community. We do serve a wide community, and our community serves us. To be able to have partnerships such as the one we have with Conway Medical Center and with our other lead gift for this facility, Coach Joe Moglia, and the numerous people who support by buying a season ticket, by supporting the athletic department with their annual giving. So, to everybody who’s had a part in it: thank you. It’s not just a practice facility; it’s a community facility.”
Tim Beck, Chanticleer head football coach
“Thank you to all the people involved in getting this accomplished … the support that we get is unbelievable. With the trials and tribulations you go through being close to the beach with the weather, it’ll be nice to be able to go somewhere where it’s going to be safe for them indoors where they can continue to compete at the highest level. This provides that. It’s breathtaking. It’s overwhelming. It’s certainly appreciated by all the coaches, by me, and all the student-athletes. It’s hard to put into the words the impact it’s going to have on these young people.”
Joe Moglia, chair of athletics, executive director for football, and executive advisor to the president
“Early on when I first got here, Dave DeCenzo and Eddie Dyer first talked to me about what do I think about getting a turf field. I said, ‘We don’t need a turf field. What we need desperately is an indoor facility.’ That was how TD [Bank Group] first got involved with the partnership with Coastal Carolina. Almost everybody we play has an indoor facility. When you have real heat and you can’t have an outdoor practice, you can go to your indoor facility. When we have any sort of rain or bad weather or lightning, you can’t practice, but we can if we have an indoor facility. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve been able to do in being competitive without that. So, I think going forward, the ability for us to be competitive and attract really quality recruits is going to make a big difference down the road.”