The San Jose State Event Center unveiled its latest completed weight room project, which opened for student athletes this month. 

Senior Associate Athletic Director Blake Sasaki said the new facility will accommodate the athletic performance training programs of various teams including men’s and women’s basketball, water polo, women’s gymnastics, swimming and diving and indoor volleyball. 

Club sports will also have access to the new facility, he said.

“Athletics will have access from 6 a.m. – 4 p.m., and club sports from 4 p.m. – 10 p.m. and adjustments can be made as needed,” Sasaki said in an email.

The facility will be supervised by Head Coach of Athletic Performance, Abe Munayer, and Club Sports Supervisor Winston Adams, Sasaki said.

Sophomore volleyball athlete Mia Schafer said many of her freshman teammates live in on-campus dorms, and are happy to have a shorter commute to the new weight room. 

The walk from the Dining Commons to Yoshihiro Uchida Hall for practice, then to the Event Center and back home is easier than the drive to South Campus, she said.

“This will save us that five minute drive to South Campus, so it’s pretty convenient,” Schafer said.

The Event Center weight room will stand as a new home for student athletes who have locker rooms on campus such as women’s volleyball, she said.

Trent Kersten, women’s volleyball head coach, said he plans to use the new weight room with the team three times a week.

He said the volleyball team is grateful for a closer practice location, only a two minute walk from Yoshihiro Uchida Hall. 

“It’s going to be a lot more efficient with our time, and I think that’s the greatest gift you could give our student athletes,” Kersten said in a phone interview.

Senior swimming and diving athlete Chloe Limargo said compared to the Koret Center weight room at South Campus, there is a much wider range of equipment.

The new medicine balls in the Event Center are a lot easier to handle than those at the Koret Center, she said.

Limargo said she was relieved when she heard about the new weight room last year.

She said using the South Campus Koret Center was difficult because teams would have to share the space using time slots. 

“Scheduling times to use the weight room at South Campus isn’t easy because many teams have to equally share the facility,” Limargo said.

She said the swim team normally holds practices nine times a week at the Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center.

With the addition of the Event Center weight room the team will hold weight training sessions three times a week, Limargo said. 

“There was a lot of excitement and anticipation with the new weight room,” Limargo said in a text message. “Not just the swimmers, but our coaches as well.” 

Limargo said she appreciates the team being closer to the student population on the main campus.

“I think it also helps us to keep our presence on campus, we all were fairly disconnected from the main student body, so being able to be on the main campus has been a welcoming change,” Limargo said.