Florida Southern athletes and coaches were beaming Wednesday during the dedication of the Adams Athletic Performance Center. The college invited donors and supporters for the gathering, which included a ribbon cutting in the spacious weight room, serving for one day as a banquet facility.
School backers sat at tables bedecked with balloons and pom poms, surrounded by stacks of pristine weights, some imprinted with the school logo and the team name “Mocs” in red letters.
Florida Southern President Jeremy Martin thanked the primary donors for whom the roughly 15,000-square-foot facility is named, Bob and Ginny Adams, along with their son, Joel Adams, a 1993 graduate, and his wife, Kelly.
Martin, a former college basketball player and coach, quoted from a translation of Paul’s words in the biblical book of 1 Corinthians: “So run to win.”
Bob Adams took to the podium in the weight room, standing before ceiling-high windows that offer a view of Lake Hollingsworth. Adams said he became a “basketball junkie” at age 14 and married a woman equally enthusiastic about the sport.
Adams recalled adopting Florida Southern’s teams soon after moving to Lakeland in 1966. He reflected on the era of Hal Wissel, who coached the Mocs to an NCAA Division II national championship in 1981, and he recalled the men’s basketball team traveling to play the likes of Duke, Michigan and Kansas.
Florida Southern athletes have trained in Gilbert Gymnasium for decades, and Athletic Director Drew Howard said the space is not sufficient for the college’s 22 sports teams. Howard recalled former baseball coach Pete Meyer talking about the need for a new weight room when Howard interviewed for his initial position in 2013.
The athletes will trade the current 3,000-square-foot weight room for a 5,000-square-foot space outfitted with the most modern equipment.
The school has added about 200 athletes in the past decade or so, Howard said, creating competition for space in the weight room. Various teams scheduled sessions from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., he said.
“For us, one of the biggest things is we’ll be able to have teams work out together as a group,” Howard said. “In the current space, teams can’t necessarily work out together. A lot of our larger teams will be able to work out together. In addition, more teams will be able to work out at opportune times. So there are days where we go and the athletes need to work out at a very consistent time.”
Florida Southern demolished the Pipkin Bandshell to create space for the Adams Center, which Howard said is about 90% complete. The facility, designed by M. Jeffery Baker, a scholar and devotee of Frank Lloyd Wright, cost about $8.2 million, Howard said.
Howard, who has led the athletic program since 2019, said the facility is already bolstering the college’s recruiting efforts. He said it would be the first stop for high school athletes visiting campus.
“Earlier today, I showed the women’s lacrosse team around, and I found myself getting choked up emotionally,” Howard said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, and at times you’re not sure how it’s going to come together. But to see it come together as beautifully as it has, it’s just, this is something that is going to impact 40 years of student-athletes.”
Screens on the walls of the David F. Jenkins Weight Room played clips of Florida Southern athletes competing in baseball, softball, tennis, and other sports during the ceremony. Howard drew attention to Lois Webb, who coached women’s volleyball for 24 years and served as athletic director from 2001 to 2008, and to recently retired FSC President Anne B. Kerr, for whom the building’s lobby is named.
The audience included Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz and City Commissioners Sara Roberts McCarley and Guy LaLonde.
The Adams Center holds locker rooms for the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. The latter currently shares space with women’s soccer, Colwell said.
The three-story facility includes a 40-seat team film room, where rows of seats angle toward a large screen mounted on the front wall. The Robert L. Fryer Jr. Conference Room, named for the chair of the FSC trustees and a 1970 graduate, is fronted by large windows providing vistas of campus and Lake Hollingsworth.
The Adams Center includes offices for the men’s and women’s basketball and lacrosse programs, though Howard noted that his office will remain in its current space.
After the ceremony, Colwell, a senior from Charlotte, North Carolina, said the women’s lacrosse team will benefit from the modern training facility.
“It’s an incredible opportunity, and it will only push our program to the next level, and I know it’s going to push all the other programs to the next level,” Colwell said. “Florida Southern’s athletics is incredible, and it’s an honor to be a part of it. And I just know that every athlete is so thankful for this space to grow as an athlete.”