SAN MARCOS, Calif. – California State University San Marcos officially broke ground on The Sports Center in an on-campus ceremony on Monday afternoon at the Clarke Field House.

Community members, invited guests and CSUSM student-athletes gathered in Hunter Gymnasium to commemorate the momentous event, which will eventually bring home basketball and women's volleyball games to campus in the fall of 2016.

"The Sports Center will tie our University closer to the region we serve as a new destination for not just exciting sports action, but also large-scale entertainment and educational programming," said University President Dr. Karen S. Haynes to the crowd. "Indeed, this will be a new rallying point of pride for our region."

Funded by student fees, the Sports Center will feature seating for 1,400 spectators, a ticket office, concession stand, an expanded sports medicine training room, home and visiting team locker rooms, a student-athlete lounge, officials locker rooms, a media office for press conference, administrative offices for coaches, LED lighting and a CSUSM Athletics Hall of Fame.

"The building is symbolic for us as an institution and as an athletic department. It symbolizes another height in our success and toward building our legacy," said Director of Athletics Jennifer Milo. "This facility has been a missing link to feeling complete as a department."

CSUSM, which added basketball and women's volleyball for the 2011-12 season, has been renting facilities from various schools from across North County for the first four years of those teams' existence. Women's volleyball was at "home" in Escondido High School its first three seasons before playing 2014 at Pacific Ridge School. Men's and women's basketball currently plays their home games at MiraCosta College.

The programs will have one more season playing off campus before The Sports Center opens for the 2016-17 athletic season.

"The impact that this facility will have on recruiting is immeasurable," said head women's volleyball coach Andrea Leonard. "As we enter into the NCAA, for CSUSM to compete and attract students, a new, modern facility such as this truly raises the bar." 


Cal State San Marcos started with just one facility and three programs in 1998: cross country, track & field, and golf. Men's and women's golf competed at local golf courses – which they still do to this day – while track and cross country ran on campus at the Mangrum Track & Field, built in 1999.

In 2006, CSUSM added men's and women's soccer, softball and baseball. While Cougar soccer was able to compete at Mangrum, softball and baseball were forced to play off campus for a number of years.

The CSUSM Softball Field was completed in 2010, and CSUSM Baseball Field opened in 2011.

The Sports Center will make the department complete.

"We look forward to dressing in our own locker rooms, watching and listening to our coaches draw up strategies on our own white boards, and having our home fans root for us on our own home floor," said CSUSM freshman and women's volleyball player Ashley Kaylor. "I can only imagine students marching across the street from the dorms to pact The Sports Center while we take on some of the best teams in NCAA Division II."
 
CSUSM is completing its last year as an independent, non-conference institution within the NAIA. The athletics department is currently in NCAA DII Candidacy Year One of the three-year process to gain full-membership within the NCAA.

The Cougars will begin playing a NCAA DII schedule starting next fall. CSUSM will compete in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).

To watch live construction of The Sports Center, click here.