Twenty minutes to go. A bass-heavy beat pounds through the air, shaking the doors of beat up lockers. Some joke around and chat with each other while others sit in seclusion, eyes focused on a single tile on the dirty floor, ears full of aggressive lyrics blasting through their own headphones. The room reeks of focus and adrenaline, anticipation and anxiety.
Five minutes to go. The music stops, but the beat lingers in the minds of the players. iPods are turned off and head phones are wrapped up. The room gets eerily quiet. A coach enters and the players huddle up. He outlines what the players needs to focus on. The short speech ends with a roar from the huddle, and the players storm out of the locker room. They are no longer just players waiting for the first whistle. They are a team.
Hours of practice are crucial to any sport, but pre-game routines are almost as important. Ideally, a team’s pre-game routine involves getting prepared in a locker room; locker rooms create an atmosphere that is vital to pregame preparations. They give players an opportunity to spend time together and do what they need to do before taking the field or court. The level of bonding that goes on in a locker room setting is unrivaled by other aspects of team sports; locker rooms help to give real meaning and legitimacy to being a part of a team.
This is exactly why Marshall needs to have a plan for building team locker rooms as it undergoes renovations. With the on-going construction it is impossible to accommodate every team sport with a locker room. However, in the past, this is something that has been a struggle for Marshall athletics. Before construction even started, there were teams that never had access to a locker room before games. To limit locker room distribution is to prevent athletes from having an experience that helps them realize the values of comaraderie.
The renovations being done to the school present a perfect opportunity to add locker room space. It is an opportunity that needs to be jumped upon. While it is unrealistic to try and build one locker room for every team, there are still ways that space can be set aside. The school could follow the locker room model that many other schools in the county use. In many cases, schools have a main locker room for PE students but have one or two smaller locker rooms branching off of them that can be used by teams that are in season. Though athletes might not be able to leave their gear in the locker rooms during the day, it would give them a place to prepare before their games.
Another option would be to install trailers next to the stadium field that could be used as locker rooms. The football and lacrosse teams have a similar set up this year; they have a trailer in the parking lot that is used for equipment storage. Why not put in a few more and let teams use them as locker rooms? This would reduce the amount of space needed to be given in the school and reduce the distance of the players’ walk to the field.
Getting adequate locker room space is something that needs to be seriously pursued. Few high school athletes go on to be a part of varsity athletics at the collegiate level. They deserve to have a complete athletic experience while they can.