For the upcoming basketball season and beyond, the St. Joe’s women’s basketball team will be flying “first-class” in their new state-of-the-art locker room and lounge.
The program recently unveiled the new locker room and lounge to its supporters in a two-minute video posted on the team’s Twitter account. The crimson and gray, Nike-branded locker room features amenities such as a new sound system, a high-rise table that has enough seats for the entire team and a multi-colored lighting system.
Sophomore forward Gabby Smalls said that the renovated locker room makes her feel like St. Joe’s is a high-level program invested in the success of herself and her teammates.
“The locker room makes me feel like I’m a part of the Big 5 and that this team is a big deal,” Smalls said. “It offers the girls and I so many more opportunities to feel comfortable as players.”
At the forefront of the project was Sue Lavin, the director of player development. She said that in addition to keeping facilities updated to remain competitive in recruiting prospective student-athletes, it was important to renovate the locker room and lounge to show the current players that the program is striving for excellence.
“Showing our players that we want to be that top tier, we are that top tier and we have the facilities to match is important” Lavin said.
According to Lavin, the program consulted with ZDESIGN, an award-winning residential and commercial interior design firm, to design the locker room and lounge. Along with the initial blueprint that ZDESIGN sent, Lavin said she browsed YouTube and Pinterest to see the graphics and features in the locker rooms and lounges of some of college basketball’s top programs.
“It was a lot of research and putting together different pieces from a lot of Power Five conference programs,” Lavin said. “We liked some quotes that other programs used, and how some had video screens instead of photos.”
The locker room still has features that are personal to St. Joe’s. The trademarked sayings “Hawk Hill Philadelphia” and “The Hawk Will Never Die” are fixed on the walls. There is an area that highlights the program’s “Tradition of Success,” which includes standout players and championship teams. Pictures of current players and coaches are displayed in the lounge.
“We wanted to highlight what is important to the program, what the tradition is and what we want the future to be,” Lavin said.
Smalls said the personalization of the locker room to the St. Joe’s program makes the players feel welcome.
“I love the detail,” Smalls said. “I feel like they put a lot of thought and effort into making the locker room feel really homey for us.”
Aside from being a place where student-athletes can physically and mentally prepare themselves for games and practices, the locker room serves as a place where team camaraderie is developed, according to junior guard Katie Jekot.
“It’s not like the locker room last year didn’t bring us together, but I think we’ll all spend more time in our locker room and that will help build our team chemistry,” Jekot said.
Both Smalls and Jekot agreed that a favorite amenity in the new locker room is the sound system. Jekot, whose favorite artist is Chris Brown, said that the music taste within the team varies between country, pop and rap.
Lavin said that she foresees the team taking full advantage of the sound system.
“There’s going to be dance parties in the locker room, mark my words,” Lavin said.
