Sports facility upgrades: first in a series: Installments to the UTRGV Athletic Facilities

Construction of Soccer and Track & Field Complex operations center to be completed in fall

The Soccer and Track & Field Complex will soon harbor the addition of an operations center as an estimated $10 million part of the now $85 million plan toward construction projects within UTRGV Athletics.

The Men’s and Women’s Soccer and Track & Field teams and staff will receive amenities such as new locker rooms, offices and a sports medicine facility.

Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque said it is an exciting and busy time for UTRGV Athletics. Currently, only four teams at UTRGV have permanent locker rooms.

“And the thing that, that I’m probably most grateful for and proud of, is that we’re addressing some needs that have been needed to be addressed for a long time,” Conque said. “And, so, there were 12 of our Division 1 programs that those student athletes didn’t have a permanent locker room, some not even a portable building. … And to be able to compete at the Division 1 level, and to be able to expect our teams to have success, we need to make sure that their day-to-day lives were improved.” 

Bryheem Hancock, head coach of the men’s soccer team, said adding the operations center will allow the staff and team to build bonds and assist in their year-long recruitment process.

“For us, it’s about recruitment, first, student-athlete experience,” Hancock said. “For them, we go to a portable locker room set up to a state-of-the-art locker room facility, where they’ll have an area that they can call home, where they can spend time to bond together as a group, you know, to be able to do academic work; a place that’s close to the coaching office where they get to speak to us daily.”

He said the team will have more time to work on tactics and answering players’ questions.

“It just benefits us in proximity to the field,” Hancock said. “Or I get the advantage of now being able to look out the window and see who’s doing extra outside of practice.” 

Senior forward Jason Robles said there are benefits in transferring from a portable locker room to a building. 

“Having …  a true locker room will help us be closer as a team,” Robles said. “And I think, like, that bonding as a team in the locker room eventually leads to, like, better performance on the field.” 

Asked if there were any concerns with the ongoing construction of the operations center, Cesar Baltazar, junior midfielder, replied there are none, but rather gratitude. 

“Just thankful that they’re getting stuff done for us, for really paying attention to us,” Baltazar said.

The construction at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex is expected to be completed in the fall, though there is no set date.

“It’s one of those things where we’re at the mercy of the construction guys, right?” Hancock said. “Obviously, there’s always things that you can’t expect. But we hope to have it, you know, next few weeks, hopefully sometime, late September or October.”

He said the work being done beside their field is not their center of attention.

“But for us, we’re not focused on that,” Hancock said. “We’re worried about what we do on the field and making sure that when school starts, we’re doing our work and doing well in the classroom. And then we’ll do some community service this preseason, so we put our footprint around the Valley, as well.”

The UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex was built in 2014 on the Edinburg campus. 

Originally, the maximum number of seats was 555, but was later increased to its current 1,250-seating capacity. In 2015, UTRGV Athletics added lights to the complex to allow for matches and events to be hosted at night. 

Before the 2022 soccer season, the university installed a new press box and sound system.