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“The U.S. Naval Academy is building a new $22 million lacrosse facility that will offer a video training room, hydrotherapy and other advanced amenities to Midshipmen athletes.
The Annapolis military academy plans to start construction early next year and open the facility by 2027, school officials told the Baltimore Business Journal. The idea of a standalone lacrosse facility has been in the works for years, and construction plans began moving forward in 2023 after an anonymous donor earmarked money for the project. The facility, which will be built by Columbia’s Harkins Builders Inc., will offer lacrosse players their own facilities for the first time and eliminate the need to share training facilities with other sports on campus.
Annapolis architecture firm Bignell Watkins Hasser Architecture & Interiors designed the two-story building to look like the outline of a naval ship, Harkins CEO Ben Nichols said. The 33,000-square-foot lacrosse center will be home to locker rooms and training areas for the more than 100 Midshipmen who play on the men’s and women’s teams. The site plan includes touches that would not look out of place in a professional facility, with an 80-seat theater to review game film and a rooftop terrace with a view of the Severn River for recruiting and alumni events. The site will also contain a gym and coaches’ offices.
‘The whole (facility) is just first class and will go a long way towards helping the Naval Academy recruit, as well as just being a cool space to develop the Midshipmen into the officers that they need to be,’ Nichols said.
The film room and recovery areas particularly excite Navy Athletic Director Michael Kelly. Midshipmen often have more obligations than other Division I athletes because of the intense academic environment and their military duties, making the ability to recover from injuries quickly especially important. The recovery room features hydrotherapy equipment like underwater treadmills and other tools to help athletes get healthy faster.
‘When you think about the additional time commitments of our Midshipmen to both their academic and military obligations, time is limited,’ Kelly said. ‘We need to make the most of that time.’
The new building will have an impact beyond the academy’s lacrosse program by freeing up space for other sports teams. The lacrosse team, for example, currently uses the same weight room as the football team, which also has a large roster.
Kelly also expects the facility to have a regional impact on the sport. The Naval Academy hosts many regional youth lacrosse events and camps, and a new high-tech center will help the academy retain its top position among local schools, Kelly said.
Lacrosse is one of the Naval Academy’s top sports, and the Midshipmen have 17 national titles in the school’s history. The men’s and women’s teams play at the 34,000-seat Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
‘I think (the facility) makes quite the statement on the importance the Naval Academy puts on the sport,’ Kelly said.”