Gymnastics’ head coach D-D Breaux has waited almost 40 years for a stand-alone gymnastics training building. Relatively soon, her wait will be over.

“Once we put the shovel in the ground, I’ll feel real good about it,” Breaux said. She was referring to the Tiger Athletic Foundation’s plans to build a gymnastics training facility in the next few years, but only after construction gets going on the new tennis complex.

Both projects are tied to the Tiger Stadium south end zone expansion, for which construction began midway through the football season. A $100 million TAF bond is funding all three projects, in addition to private donations aiding both tennis and gymnastics. 

Each sport has major facility upgrade needs. For tennis, it’s indoor courts—since both teams compete year-round in one of the nation’s wettest cities.

Gymnastics’ biggest need, according to Breaux, is space.

Overlapping dismount areas for nearly every event has created a crowded and somewhat dangerous practice area, Breaux said, while pointing to the two cut-outs on the far side of the gym that used to be a track and field storage room and racquetball courts, respectively. 

Now, her gymnasts train in those rooms. Breaux can hardly see what goes on inside each cut-out, unless she leaves the main room where balance beam, floor routines and uneven bar performances all happen in different areas of the large but crowded gymnasium practically hidden in a corner of the Carl Maddox Field House.

The new facility will serve as a valuable recruiting tool, she said.

The gymnastics team will continue hosting home meets at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, since the new building will serve only as a training complex.

The tennis complex will likely be built across the street from Alex Box Stadium on Gourrier Avenue, pending a land lease approval by the Board of Supervisors in December that would allow TAF to build on University property, said Senior Associate Athletic Director Eddie Nunez.

It will feature 12 outdoor courts, six indoor courts and “everything [the team] needs to be able to compete at the highest level,” Nunez said, adding that construction should begin sometime during summer 2013, with an expected construction period of six to eight months.

As for gymnastics, TAF is looking to hire an architect sometime in January. 

‘Once we put the shovel in the ground, I’ll feel real good about it.’