The TCU sand volleyball courts are in the beginning stages of a major renovation.
Associate Athletic Director of Athletics Ross Bailey said they’re currently working on designs to expand the two existing courts to four courts, and they are working out engineering issues with the TCU Physical Plant for the renovation.
“The engineers are really trying to determine what’s under the ground.” Bailey said. “What kind of drain pipes, what kind of electrical service, what chilled water loop for the air conditioners. Those things make a difference in terms of what we build on top of those.”
Bailey said a major part of the renovation is seeing how far the courts can be in relationship to the recreation center and the Milton Daniel Hall.
“The preliminary designs are outstanding,” he said, “but we haven’t really put anything out in public yet because you really go through about four phases of design work.
“You start with a written scope of what you’d like to do. From there they go into what they call schematic design, which is what I like to call fancy napkin drawings,” he said. “That’s people sitting around just kind of sketching..”
“Then you go into design documents and finally construction documents,” he said. “This right now is somewhere in that schematic design stage.”
Designers are also taking into account that they will be dual-purpose courts. Students, faculty members with a membership to the recreation center and community recreation center members will also be able to use the courts.
Sand volleyball head coach Erik Peterson said he thinks thinks the upgraded facility will be a huge asset to the new program.
“It’s right there in the heart of student housing and every time we host a match it’s going to be an event,” Peterson said.
“It’s just going to be a place for everybody to go on campus. We’re going to be able to hang out, have DJs and all sorts of things that will make it a very spectator-friendly atmosphere.”
All 11 games of TCU sand volleyball’s inaugural season were played away or on neutral courts. Peterson said it’s going to be a lot of fun scheduling next year’s home matches with the new facility expected to be completed around September.
“The sand volleyball community is very small,” he said. “These are a lot of coaches I work with in the summer. They’re a great group of people, and we’ve gotten a lot of interest from teams who have expressed interest in returning the trip that we did.”
Before TCU can host matches, Bailey and the construction team have to finalize designs for the renovation. Bailey said he hopes to move forward after meeting with the TCU board of trustees in a couple weeks.
“Hopefully we will have enough background and will have enough of our homework done that we can brief the board of trustees on some costs and ideas, and then after that we’ll post the designs,” Bailey said.
Indoor volleyball head coach Jill Kramer tweeted this photo about the addition to the courts getting started.
Prep work for @TCUSandVB @tcuvolleyball addition is underway! #GoBig #GoFrogs ���� pic.twitter.com/oAuKETFJn1
— Jill Kramer (@jillkramer) March 20, 2015