A jump in the right direction
The gymnastics practice room has about enough space to have a lecture in it.
It hardly has enough space to do jumps, flips and somersaults.
The Board of Trustees approved $700,000 in renovations for the facility Thursday at its meeting.
The renovations will be welcomed.
"We want to get these renovations taken care of as soon as possible," said Trustee Roger Kesseler. "We have a fair amount of work to do, and it won't take long, which is why we are going to make it high priority."
It is dangerous to have such a high level of activity in such a small area. Renovations include expanding the facility into the turf room next door and increasing the number of safety pits.
This will greatly increase the safety of the gymnasts.
Coach Jerry Reighard and the gymnastics program are fortunate that no one was seriously injured because of the small space.
All it would take is one little slip; gymnastics is a dangerous sport.
Gymnasts need free range to do their routines and these renovations will begin to provide that.
The Athletics Department finished a year-long investigation of the facility last January. It concluded there was great potential for injury because of the space limitations.
The board did a nice job to shore up these problems as quickly as possible.
It also will help Reighard's recruiting.
A recruit may not have been interested in the current room and that might have caused them to choose another school.
But these renovations make the room much more appealing to recruits, which is all about image and what type of product CMU can sell to the athletes.
A new, advanced practice facility will provide CMU a stronger image.
Reighard has built a strong tradition at CMU since taking the job in 1984.
His teams consistently are ranked in the top 20 in the nation and have won 10 regular season Mid-American Conference titles.
Giving Reighard good facilities only will increase his team's chances to win more.
