“It’s an arms race,” said Johnson C Smith (JCSU) head football coach Maurice Flowers while sitting on a brand new weight bench, inside of the brand new weight room, that’s inside of the also brand new Johnson C. Smith Student Athlete Achievement Center.
The two-story building sits atop the hill overlooking Eddie McGirt Stadium and is the latest proverbial “big gun” for the JCSU Golden Bulls as the Charlotte, North Carolina HBCU continues to upgrade its athletic facilities to keep up with the “arms race” that is NCAA college football.
In April of 2023, JCSU laid down a brand new turf field to replace the grass at Eddie McGirt Field, and then in December Smith cut the ribbon on the Student-Athlete Achievement Center.
The multipurpose athletic facility includes a new weight room, study hall, and football locker room.
PHOTO GALLERY: JOHNSON C SMITH DEBUTS NEW WEIGHT ROOM
Million-dollar athletic facilities are no longer just for the big-time FBS football programs. If a school wants to be competitive in the world of college football, even at the Division II level, you need top-notch facilities.
“Now it’s who’s got the best locker rooms, who’s got the best weight rooms, who’s got the best fields, and who’s got the best academic support. And we can say that now when it comes to division II and HBCU, we’re going to be near the top when we talk about those areas.” Coach Flowers continued in an exclusive interview after the football team’s first 5 am lift in their new weight room.
Maurice Flowers talks Multi-Million Dollar Athletic Facility Upgrades at JCSU
“We were lifting in a weight room that that you can only get 15 or 18 to 20 in there at a time. So we had to be creative in how we went through the offseason, how we went through in-season lifts. But as you can see, the results, I mean, you looked at two wins the first year and quadruple that total the second year and we’re looking for things to just continue to get better.”
As an alumnus and former football and basketball player at JCSU, Maurice Flowers was well aware of the athletic facility needs at Smith when he took the job in 2022.
“I came here in 1987. I don’t know when it (the weight room) was made or when it was started, but it was before 1987. And I believe, as I talked to some of the older heads, it goes back to 1960. And the same with the locker room,” Coach Flowers recalled.
PHOTO GALLERY: JOHNSON C SMITH DEBUTS NEW WEIGHT ROOM
“It started in the interview process. You know, being a Johnson C Smith alumnus. I know what was here and I always knew the potential. And so knowing the potential of the university, all we needed was a jump start. That jump-start was new facilities. And with the commitment to the chairman of the Board of trustees, Mr. Stephen Boyd, he was very adamant that it was coming and coming quickly.”
The Johnson C Smith Golden Bulls are heading into year three of the Maurice Flowers era having gone from losing six games by one touchdown or less in year one, to finishing one win shy of tying the school record for wins in year two. The timely combination of the new turf field and facilities with their best season in almost 30 years has already paid dividends on the recruiting trail as JCSU already has an exciting group of new players on campus for the start of Spring Ball in early March.
Check out our five-part docuseries Brick x Brick | Changing the Culture at Johnson C Smith out now on Youtube and the HBCU Gameday app.
Brick x Brick | Changing the Culture at Johnson C Smith Season One
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