PROVO, Utah — Members of the BYU football team got a welcomed surprise on Monday when the just-completed football locker room renovations in the Student Athlete Building were revealed to the team for the first time.
"This is awesome. We are super grateful for the staff, administration and school for these renovations," said BYU junior center James Empey, a 2020 team captain. "We are blessed to have such a nice place to utilize as we get ready for workouts, practices and games. I liked that they involved us as players and made sure to ask us what we were looking for and what we wanted in a locker room. It was great to have that input in the process. There is so much attention to detail. This is great."
The team was introduced to their new locker facilities Monday morning following a team meeting. Located on the main level of the Student Athlete Building, the locker room underwent a complete interior reconstruction with upgraded amenities within the existing locker room footprint. The 75-yard long locker room, which was patterned after the locker room of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, offers the football team and staff convenient access to the program’s equipment room, athletic training facilities, strength and conditioning center, practice fields and meeting rooms.
Each locker offers a creative, personalized design while providing spacious storage compartments intended for football-specific equipment, pads and gear. A built-in ventilation system takes odor and moisture from each locker compartment and removes it from the locker room. The many amenities also include locking compartments, comfortable soft seats and built-in power and charging ports. The entire facility, including showers and bathrooms, were redone along with the addition of a new team haircutting area.
Other features of the renovations include a Nike gear display, BYU football history uniform displays, new shuffle board tables and televisions, and equipment pick-up lockers. The football staff locker and alumni locker areas within the facility were also renovated.
The project, which began at the end of April, is the first major renovation of the locker room since the Student Athlete Building opened in 2004. Funding for the renovations came from the SAB maintenance endowment fund that was established prior to the facility’s construction, with interest earned on the endowment devoted to the ongoing maintenance and future improvements of the facility.
“This project is possible because of the generosity of so many great Cougar fans who years ago contributed to the building of the Student Athlete Building and its endowment,” said BYU director of athletics Tom Holmoe in April when the project was announced. “Cougar Nation’s tremendous support of BYU Athletics continues to bless the lives of our student-athletes.”