Often, community building requires community buildings.

For the Athletics department, the fall tailgate—the unofficial athletics kickoff for the 2019-20 school year—is fast approaching (and, unlike last year, should hopefully be free of hurricanes *knock wood*). In addition to celebrating our athletes, next Friday’s tailgate marks our first chance to show off some dramatic and exciting changes to our athletics’ facilities and program.

You might ask: how does improving our athletics facilities strengthen our community?

As we’ve said before, despite its status as an academic powerhouse, CA’s student body is full of athletes, with 81% of eligible students playing at least one sport. So, it only makes sense that—much like completing the CMS and redesigning the library—improvements to our athletics facilities will have a similarly significant impact on our students, fans, and families.

For years, the weight room in the Fitness Center gym has been cramped, dark, and generally uninviting. Aside from use by teams, it has served the community through the hard work and personal dedication of Information Services Consultant Eric Moore and Landscape Technician Roy Peterson, who devoted their time to guiding workouts for students, staff, and faculty alike.

To better serve the community, we’ve rethought the design and function of the weight room to reflect a larger goal of whole-body wellness with a philosophical focus on functional training, in addition to traditional weight-based strength training. Over the summer, the rechristened strength and conditioning room was significantly expanded, nearly doubling in size. Larger windows will allow more light and make the room’s atmosphere more welcoming, while non-porous MONDO flooring will make high-impact workouts safer.

Have you ever avoided the gym, intimidated by the prospect of working out next to an intense ‘gym junkie?’ We want the new strength and conditioning room to make everyone feel welcome, regardless of their strength and athletic prowess. The addition of functional training, which uses body mechanics and functional movements tuned to the individual, is a more accessible approach to fitness and one that we hope can benefit the health of the entire community.

Ensuring that everyone can benefit from the new space and workout safely, the expanded room will house the offices of Head Athletic Trainer Rob Assadurian, Assistant Athletic Trainer Eldridge Baltazar, who is now a full-time member of the CA staff, and our first full-time Strength and Conditioning Coach, Richard Huxford.

Coach Huxford comes to CA after a career playing in the English Football and Scottish Football Leagues and coaching the Carolina Railhawks and North Carolina FC. In addition to his experience as a world-class coach and athlete, he brings expertise in biokinetics. Biokenetics—which uses motion tracking to help athletes study their body mechanics in detail– will allow Coaches Huxford and Moore to improve our teams’ and individual students’ athletic techniques, mobility, and quickness, once the strength and conditioning room opens.

But what of the experience of going to games, how is that improving?

The FC has received a fresh coat of much brighter paint, which has, in my opinion, made a huge difference in making the fan experience much more welcoming. It’s also allowed us to reorganize our championship banners (I have to say it makes me feel proud to see our student-athletes’ accomplishments covering the walls!).

The baseball field is also getting a major upgrade with the construction of a new pressbox and announcer’s booth. In addition to housing conveniently-located bathrooms—which will also make life more comfortable for events and sports on the Middle School field—the new building will provide an enhanced fan experience, turning games into community events thanks to better announcement, entertainment, and technological capabilities.

I know what you’re thinking: I get that CA has a reputation as a ‘technology-driven school,’ but how exactly does improved support for technology at our athletics venues improve our program and help us build a better community?

Thanks to a future installation of a new Hudl Focus smart camera in the FC, we will be able to automatically capture game footage for later analysis by coaches and players. Happily, the equipment also supports livestreaming, which will allow us to pilot and experiment with that technology in the future.

Don’t get me wrong: we still want fans, families, and supporters cheering our Chargers on in person. But, if you can’t make it, this technology has the potential to allow you (or other Charger fans from afar) a virtual seat in the stands. In addition to games, since the FC is also an event hub for our campus community, livestreams could allow members of the wider CA community to view schoolwide experiences, such as Ubuntu, Middle School students vs. faculty games, Wacky Olympics, and more.

But that’s not all.

Launching today, our brand-new CA Athletics site—GoChargers.caryacademy.org—will also provide a better experience for fans, families, and members of the community, conveying important athletics information and broadcasting the hard work and accomplishments of our Charger athletes, coaches, and supporters.

Finally, our longest-term ‘summer’ project is racing towards completion.

Back in May, a few days before commencement, an expert crew began completely rebuilding the track and field running track. We are replacing the 22-year old latex surface with a premium MONDO performance track, the same surface used in many recent Olympic Games.

CA will be the first school in North Carolina, and one of a handful of schools in the South, with a MONDO surface. Once completed in October, Charger athletes will train and compete on a world-class track that is on-par with (and in many cases, better than) the running surfaces they will experience at the collegiate level. It will help them continue to excel, while providing a safer surface for their joints and muscles. The MONDO surface will make our track one of the best in North Carolina, opening the door for our school to host more community events and athletic competitions in the future.

There’s so much to be excited about, as our campus and Charger spirit grows. Next Friday, come out and join us for a slate of home games, to cheer on our school, get to know each other, and take pride in our strides.

Go Chargers!