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UAM Dedicates Indoor Practice
Facility (9/14/09)
MONTICELLO, AR — With legislators, dignitaries and former coaches holding
the scissors, the University of Arkansas at Monticello formally cut the
ribbon dedicating a new indoor practice facility Saturday afternoon.
The 34,160-square-foot building located just north of the playing field at
Convoy Leslie-Cotton Boll Stadium was called “a dream come true,” by UAM
Chancellor Jack Lassiter, who praised former Boll Weevil player Hugh Heflin
for directing The Campaign for Athletics,. The campaign raised over $600,000
in private contributions to help pay for the facility.
“Hugh Heflin is a big reason this facility is here today,” said Lassiter.
“He volunteered to head up the athletic campaign and without his efforts and
the extra money he was able to raise for this project, this facility would
not be at the level that it is.”
UAM broke ground on the building prior to the 2008 football season. The
building includes a 26,030-square-foot artificial turf room for use by all
of the university’s athletic teams as well as the marching band. The turf
room is the width of a regulation football field and 40 yards long.
The rest of the building includes eight offices, a workroom, a coaches
locker room, two video meeting rooms and two classrooms which can be
partitioned into smaller rooms if necessary.
“The indoor building is nice, but the classrooms and video rooms facilitate
every team on campus,” said UAM head football coach Gwaine Mathews. “This is
a first-class building.”
WEEVILS PAST AND PRESENT — Current
UAM head coach Gwaine Mathews (left) and former Boll Weevil coach Carl
Preston admire the turf room of the indoor practice facility. The room is 40
yards long by the width of a football field.
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