MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The WVU Board of Governors recently approved $1.6 million for a new practice facility for the Mountaineer Marching Band.
WVU Dean of the College of Media and Creative Arts Dr. H. Keith Jackson said the Pride Practice Field and Facility will be an artificial turf field to be called Don Wilcox Field and will be built on the Medical Sciences Campus where existing outdoor lighting is in place for evening practices.
“If you’re at Kegler’s or at the Office Depot, look across the street up the hill; they’ll see where the lights are already in place, and that’s where the practice facility will be,” Jackson said on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.”
The fields will be larger than a regulation football field, allowing more events to be held, and will also be used for intramural sports.
“There’s a lot of time that we are not using it, and that was always the idea—to have a multi-use field to be more efficient with space because in Morgantown class space is a premium,” Jackson said. “So, it was always the idea to share this facility so it wasn’t sitting vacant most days of the year.”
Phase I of the donor-driven project will include the field, and later phases will add a storage facility and an enclosed pavilion that would be used for practices during poor weather conditions.
“We will definitely break ground in March and we will be ready for band camp when this fall comes,” Jackson said.
Jackson said for the first time the permanent practice facility for the band will be an actual field instead of an asphalt parking lot. In addition to the health benefits of turf, Jackson said it will offer a more realistic training opportunity to prepare for games inside Milan Puskar Stadium.
“It’s also a true field and not asphalt, which has been used for decades,” Jackson said. “And the field will be a little larger, so when we’re not using it for the Pride, Student Life can use it for their activities.”
Jackson said getting the practices off the asphalt is going to be a big benefit for current and future band members. He many alumni are very envious after hearing the stories about the wear and tear caused by practices on the hard asphalt surface.
“I know a lot of the alumni over the decades, and ankle, knee, and back problems are more common than they should be,” Jackson said.