Hertz Center wows coaches, student-athletes
“It's a coach's dream,” Lisa Stockton said as she stood beside the two full-size basketball courts ringed with 12 baskets at the heart of the new $13 million Hertz Center, dedicated on Thursday (Nov. 17) at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by members of the Tulane community.
Athletics director Rick Dickson (from left), philanthropist Doug Hertz and Tulane President Scott Cowen cut the ribbon to celebrate the opening of the Hertz Center, an athletics practice facility. (Photo by Parker Waters)
The 43,000-square-foot practice facility for the Green Wave men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball teams “definitely has a 'wow' factor to it,” said Stockton, in her 18th season as head coach for women's basketball.
It's not just the 14,756 square feet of gym space that impresses the coaches and student-athletes. The building also offers top-notch offices and locker rooms for the teams, a conditioning, training and hydrotherapy center, a video and film room and several second-floor conference rooms with windows that overlook the expansive courts downstairs.
Areas for studying and relaxing outside each locker room each with built-in iPod/iPhone docking stations appeal to student-athletes, while coaches appreciate having easy access to conference rooms. Before the Hertz facility, Stockton often had to bring her team to the Lavin-Bernick Center for strategy sessions as the teams traversed between Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse and the Wilson Center for Intercollegiate Athletics, on opposite ends of the campus.
Now the teams also can gather in the Hertz Center's film room with its 32 leather chairs, each having a pull-up desktop, to review film of opponents and game plans.
The new facility is named for Doug and Lila Hertz and their family, who made the naming gift. Doug Hertz is an Atlanta businessman and the chair of the Tulane Board Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics.
At the ceremony, Hertz said his "born and bred Tulane family" wanted to do something to impact the lives of student-athletes. "We hope this will be a springboard for a complete renaissance for all of Tulane athletics," he said.
