COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It's a new day for University of Maryland Athletics. The football team has a new home.
They've been practicing there since 2017 and now they can permanently move in.
It's a venue rich in history. A building legendary for Terps fans: The Jones-Hill House, formerly Cole Field House. Over the last few years the barn that housed so many great basketball games has been transformed into a state-of-the art practice facility for Terps football.
After a half dozen years the project is complete. Bells and whistles there are aplenty.
The highlight of it all is the locker room. It includes 126 individual lockers fit with a recliner, wireless phone chargers, vents and lights controlled by each player via an app.
How about 24,000 square feet of strength and conditioning space. That's four times the size of the same room at the old Gossett Team House.
The sports medicine area is three times the size of that at Gossett. Treatment, rehab, recovery facilities have all been upgraded. The players lounge is also impressive. It is complete with a recording studio and barber shop that turns into a DJ Station.
It's all part of what will become the fully functioning home for the Terrapins football team on June 14.
Below is information about the Jones-Hill House:
"When you look at the details and you look at this place it sets a standard for what the expectation is for us now that this investment has been made in football," said Head Coach Mike Locksley.
"It’s crazy," said Terps wide receiver Rakim Jarrett. "To see what we were in and what we’re in now it’s like a dream come true. It’s like moving from a single family home to a mansion."
Terps Athletics Director Damon Evans said this is what they need to build when they are looking to expand on other facilities.
"When we measure ourselves against our competition, whether it be in the Big Ten or across the country, many people don’t like it but it is an arms race out there," he said. "If we want to be the best and we want to compete against the best, we have got to provide the necessary resources to do so."
The final price tag on the Terps’ new home: $149.3 million.
This building is still undergoing construction on its new research wing and entrepreneurship center. Evans said there is no set time frame for completion on that project.
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