Spurs & Feathers • 23
September 10, 2014
Gamecock equestrian team enjoying new digs by mike kucharski mike@spursandfeathers.com
South Carolina’s back-to-back SEC champion equestrian team has another point of pride for the program: a brand-new locker room. The $500,000 project began in June of 2013 and was finished in late August for the riders to use. Head coach Boo Major said the studentathletes were able to use the facility after winter break last year, but the finished product is amazing now that they are fully moved in. She added the process was long, but worth the wait. “It is fantastic to have this addition. Really no one else has something like this with equestrian in the country,” Major explained. “It really is that nice. It was specifically done for our student-athletes with them in mind. We added some things to it that aren’t in normal locker rooms. For instance a lot of the girls bring their own saddles, so we added a room where they can keep their own saddles. Plenty of things like that and the lockers themselves are custom lockers that were made specifically for us. “I really feel like it was something that wasn’t just thrown up. We spent a lot of time going through the plans and once it got up (we) made a few changes here and there. I think that we
really ended up with something that is fantastic,” Major continued. Major likened the addition of the locker room to the use of cell phones, saying “it’s kind of like a cell phone where you think, ‘what did I do before the cell phone?’ It’s sort of the same thing, ‘what did we do before we had this locker room?’ So it really has worked out great and the girls have just really enjoyed having it.” The architects of the facility have been around taking photos to enter the finished product into an architectural competition according to Major. She hopes that they are able to win a prize to recognize their hard work, but also because “it would be nice to say that not only is our equestrian team an award-winning team, but our locker room is an award-winning locker room.” Overall Major said that the new facility will benefit the program long term as well as allowing the current student-athletes the chance to enjoy the benefits of the new locker room. “The upgrades of the facility have really allowed us to continue to be able to recruit. It works very well as a recruiting tool as well as the girls being able to use it as a place that they can hang out. It really is one-of-a-kind and very well done,” Major concluded.
all photos by juan blas