When Dabo Swinney saw Sean Pollard and Cannon Smith carrying their fishing poles and walking back from the moat and into the new Allen Reeves Football Complex the other day, he knew building the $55 million complex was going to be worth every penny.
Though he admitted he would not eat any fish from that moat, Swinney did think to himself when he saw Pollard and Smith, “How awesome is this?”
“These players don’t have a dorm. There is no dorm,” Swinney said. “It is not like they live together or anything like that. You get in these positions where guys are with their position group. These guys are going to interact with each other. It is really going to be, I think, a great team-building type of building for us.
“Again, this is a chance to develop these guys and make sure they have an unbelievable experience here.”
Swinney said it is going to be fun to wear the new facility for a little while. The building is connected to the Poe Indoor Practice facility, which wraps around the outdoor practice fields. It’s made where everything is at the players’ disposal from the coaches, team meeting rooms, the training room, the nutritionist, the cafeteria, the weight room, professional development, to even the entertainment. They have it all right in front of them.
“It is just a game changer,” Swinney said. “Everything for us is about having a great Clemson experience for these guys and making sure they develop holistically as they go through this program, not just as football players.
“This is a facility that will accentuate those opportunities. Starting with the front door when you come in to Paw Journey and what is going to happen with the career and professional development that we are going to do right there at the Paw Journey. It is just amazing what Jeff Davis is coordinating.”
Swinney said the new building is about building champions on and off the field.
“I’m just so proud of how we have formulated that and what it is going to be able to do for our current players and our former players. It is just amazing,” he said. “That is what it is all about. It is about building champions.
“The building just sets the standard. We talk about best is the standard, and I don’t think there is anything better.”
When it comes to the amenities for the student athletes there is no one that has it better in the country. There is a basketball court, a nine-hole putt course, a nap room, a wiffle ball field, a two-lane bowling alley, arcade games, a ping pong table, a pool table and PlayStation and Xbox games. And let’s not forget the slide.
They also have indoor and outdoor seating areas as well as an outdoor fire place and pavilion with grills.
“We want them to have fun. We want them to enjoy it,” Swinney said. “They are going to compete every day in this building. There is going to be competition going on every single day. Great things come from competition.”
Then there is the efficiency of it all. There is no more traming across Perimeter Road from the WestZone at Clemson Memorial Stadium to get to practice every day.
“The efficiency is night and day,” Swinney said. “We are not traming our guys twice a day. We are here every day with our players. The twenty-hour work week once you get into the fall is really going to change for us as far as our efficiency with that time. It will make the days a little shorter.
“We literally come right out of our meetings, hopefully, and just pop right down the slide and right out onto the practice field, and we are going to be ready to go. I just think the overall efficiency and just the team building that is going to go on is going to be special.”
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