By Dylan Lux / The Jambar
With the start of the new semester, fall sports teams are forced to practice at a new location as Beeghly Center renovations continue into September.
Beeghly had not been modernized since its conception in 1972, but the nearly $2 million project began in May to replace seating and bleachers on the east and west sides of the center.
Over the summer, no activities or sporting events were held in Beeghly and most training for student-athletes was moved inside Stambaugh Stadium.
As for the project’s timeline, Ron Strollo, director of Intercollegiate Athletics, said Youngstown State University is planning to reopen the lower bowl of the center come mid-September.
“Our goal is to give our volleyball team a week to prepare, or at least the week of their home match,” Strollo said. “We’re hoping to get the lower bowl turned over to us [by] September 16.”
The Youngstown State women’s volleyball home opener is scheduled for Sept. 20 inside Beeghly Center.
Tim Stuart, senior associate athletic director, said there was a small delay in the arrival of the seating parts, but nothing the faculty wasn’t expecting.
“We had a three day delay on the [full] delivery, the seats came in early,” Stuart said. “All the other parts and pieces — they were supposed to come on a Wednesday and they ended up coming on a Friday.”
Volleyball — the most affected sport — was unable to host their preseason tournament, and was one of the programs forced to practice in Stambaugh Stadium.
“Both basketball and volleyball have been here most of the summer … they’ve been over in Stambaugh [Stadium],” Strollo said.
Strollo said he was not concerned with the project’s completion affecting the volleyball home-opener, saying “there’s no reason” the team should not be in Beeghly by that date.
“We’re relying on competing there [on] September 20,” Strollo said. “We don’t believe there’s a reason they would not be able to compete [in Beeghly].”
In regards to backup plans, Strollo was confident in the project, saying “we have some backup plans, but don’t plan on putting those in place.”
Strollo said the project budget has stayed on course, with no unexpected costs as the near $2 million venture nears completion.
“A lot of times you get into these projects — and we’ve done a lot of projects — you start with one budget and next thing you know it just keeps increasing,” Strollo said. “We haven’t had that — knock on wood — with this situation.”
With the budget on track, Stuart credited the lack of issues to the renovations being surface level.
“This is a little different [than other projects] because everything is on the surface,” Stuart said. “When you start going underground or behind walls, you might find some things that you weren’t sure you were going to find.”
Athletics has worked on multiple projects over the past year, including the 150-seat “theater-style” DiBacco Family Leadership Center in Stambaugh Stadium, along with the Korandovich Family Sports Medicine Center, which opened in Beeghly last summer.
Stuart said YSU has also been working on facilities for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
“With both basketball staffs being new we did some stuff with [the] women’s basketball’s locker room over the summer,” Stuart said. “Men’s basketball has done some fundraising as well, so we’re going to be doing some stuff in their locker room as well.”