From Washington University Athletics
The Washington University in St. Louis Athletics Department launches the Center of Excellence initiative comprised of five core areas dedicated to build and prepare scholar-champions for both today and beyond.
Sports Performance, Sports Medicine, Nutrition, Enrichment Services and the soon-to-be-launched Well-Being Suite collectively will provide a competitive advantage to WashU student-athletes who want to become, and graduate, scholar-champions.
"WashU features a world-class education and an athletic home to stellar coaches and motivated student-athletes that embody a culture of intellectual curiosity and a winning mentality," said Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and the John M. Schael Director of Athletics Anthony J. Azama. "This collective approach, the Center of Excellence, seeks to fully maximize the student-athletes' potential of competitive excellence in spite of fierce competition, while continuing to define and take advantage of opportunities moving forward."The end goal, in addition to attracting the very best, is to provide the experience, resources and roadmap for student-athletes to cultivate their talents to maximize future value beyond their four years of undergraduate study."
Over the next several days, we will highlight each of the five core areas that comprise the Center of Excellence. Each core area allows WashU Athletics to tangibly differentiate itself among competing institutions. The first area is the Sports Performance Center.
Sports Performance Center
WashU's brand new Sports Performance Center (SPC) was opened in January 2023 and is a 7,000 square-foot facility designed specifically for the Bears student-athletes. Additionally, WashU added another full-time Sports Performance Coach to the staff and are now equipped with three full-time coaches and several part-time coaches to better serve the student-athletes than ever before.
"We are hitting the bullseye with the Center of Excellence intiative, and we could not be more excited about it!" said Terry O'Neill, Head Sports Performance Coach. "This will enhance the experience of everyone involved, beginning with our Scholar-Champions and spreading through the entire department. Combining mental health, nutrition, sports performance, and sports medicine is an inclusive, holistic, and cutting-edge approach. Each segment undeniably affects the other. We are truly meeting our scholar champions where they're at and taking them where they need to go."
The SPC is large enough to accommodate up to 80 athletes at a time, allowing for more large-group team training than in the previous weight room. It features 16 Samson rack stations, Eleiko plates and bars, a 30-by-5 yard turf flooring area, two belt squat lifting machines, nine glute/hamstring machines, medicine balls and a throwing wall, five plyo box sets and 16 side boards.
Additionally, the SPC has state-of-the-art Perch technology which uses cameras to track sets, reps, peak velocity, mean velocity, peak power, mean power, eccentric mean velocity and eccentric time. This will allow the sports performance team to quantify weight room performance and enhance each individual's workout.
"I think it's been pretty incredible to see the new Sports Performance Center, to see it get developed and the opportunities that T.O. is growing there with the addition of a new strength coach and all this new fantastic equipment," said football's Matthew Schmal. "It really allows us to push ourselves to be better each and every time we walk in there. The old weight room had a lot of stuff and it was great but this new facility we have right now is really top of the line. There are iPads that can track everything, show how explosive we are, maybe you're feeling great one day and you can see that, you can see all those readings with the new technology. Honestly I've thoroughly enjoyed that process and I've loved every second working out in there."