The UND High Performance Center undergoes construction last fall on campus. Photo by Chester Beltowski/The Dakota Student.

UND broke ground in fall 2013 for the new High Performance Center, and it looks as though it will be ready to go for the 2015-16 school year.

The High Performance Center will be used by athletics programs at UND, paving a new road to how each prepares and practices in and out of season.

“It’s going to be huge for the school,” said Will Ratelle, junior linebacker on the UND football team. “In the winter months, for a lot of teams, they aren’t able to get much done as far as practicing and working out goes.”

The new athletic complex will be built with a 100-yard artificial turf field, 300-meter eight lane track and will provide room for spectator seating. An academic center and a sports medicine facility also will be built, along with a strength and conditioning room for athletes.

“Everyone is excited for it,” Retelle said. “I’ll be a senior next year, so I’m not as excited for it as some of the freshman and sophomores on the team. They will be able to get more use out of it with the years to come.”

Retelle also noted how the High Performance Center will change the way he and his team are able to practice from recent years.

“With the turf and the full sized gym, we will be able to run all of the drills that we want to.” he said.

Though athletic teams have been able to practice at indoors facilities over the years such as the Hyslop Center, an upgrade to a building like the High Performance Center provides new ways to make the most of preparation.

Not only does this new center provide more space for athletes to work, but it also will create an improved overall practice environment for teams.

“It will be a better environment to work in,” Retelle said. “When we are doing drills over at the Hyslop and the whole team is in the gym, there is an echo and it can be really loud, which makes it hard to communicate. So communication is a big thing and will be much easier once we make the move over.”

The building also serves as a way to revitalize the program.

“Recruiting-wise, it’s going to be big because we have to be able to compete with the other schools like NDSU that have facilities like this one,” Ratelle said. “We will be able to get better work done and improve the program.”

UND Athletic Director Brian Faison is hopeful in the High Performance Center’s progress.

“We’re still looking at August 1 to take over the facility,” Faison told UND Athletics. “Our big concern is that we will be able to be in here and be fully functional by mid-October when the weather outside becomes an issue for football, and surely for track and field. So August 1 seems to be holding up right now.”

Ben Novak is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reach at [email protected].