Vincent LeBlanc
Staff Writer
One of the biggest additions to campus in the following years is the Adams Athletic Performance Center, which broke ground in 2022. The center boasts a 5,000 square foot weight room, a theater for film review, and office suites for the basketball team on campus. Originally slated to open in spring of this year, the project has taken slightly longer than expected, and is currently still in construction, with the exterior completely finished.
The athletic center hopes to maintain FSC’s standing as one of the best Division II NCAA sports programs in the world, as well as reducing traffic around the Nina B. Hollis Wellness Center. FSC’s Director of Athletics and Dean of Wellness Drew Howard has been involved with the project from the very beginning.
“We’ve been talking about a new weight room for well over a decade,” said Howard. “Going from looking at the renderings, to the drawings, to really starting to put things in place, to seeing the ground start to move was a lot of fun.”
The inside of the facility remains unfinished, with the film room being mostly complete and the weight room just needing the equipment.
“It’s a game-changer for us,” Howard said. “A huge part of athletic achievement and accomplishment is what happens in the weight room.”
Howard went on to point out that sports teams on campus couldn’t work out together due to the smaller nature of the Wellness Center. When asked where some of the biggest challenges with designing the building were, Howard shared what he has learned through the process.
“First and foremost, you’re trying to match what you need and what you want with what you can afford,” Howard said. “It was definitely a learning process for me, but ultimately I think we have a great building that is going to benefit our department for a long, long time.”
As the center draws closer to completion, the anticipation for its arrival among student athletes remains strong. There are over 500 student athletes at Florida Southern, making up over a seventh of all students enrolled. Due to this significant number of student athletes, the athletic department decided to branch out and build their own training complex. The high number of athletes combined with the pedigree of the athletic program in general, with FSC boasting 30 national championships across six different sports, administration seized the opportunity for growth.
(Editor’s note: The name of FSC Athletic Director Drew Howard was incorrect in the original article. This has been corrected.)