Wolford Family Strength and Conditioning Center

530 Vine Street
Chattanooga TN 37403

Located in the heart of campus, the Wolford Family Strength and Conditioning Center is a part of the $3.2 million Brenda Lawson Student-Athlete Success Center. Utilized by all student-athletes at UTC, this state-of-the-art strength and conditioning facility is one of the finest of its kind in the country.

In 2022, a dramatic improvement was made on the space available. The room was cleared, and new equipment brought in to maximize strength efforts. There is also an addition of a nutrition zone to keep all areas of athletics performance at the forefront.

"This was a much-needed enhancement benefiting the efforts of (Dir. of Athletics Performance) Gerry Pacitti and his staff," Vice-Chancellor Mark Wharton explained. "It was really top-to-bottom covering equipment, flooring, graphics and nutrition.

"We invested a half-million dollars into our student-athletes with this project through a wide range of funding including the commitment of our donors."

The donor base for this project came from One Chattanooga funds and a gift by Todd Moreland. One Chattanooga is a group of 20 leadership donors who committed $1,000,000 in philanthropic support to impact direct areas of need for student-athletes.

The change to the area is dramatic with less free weight and more targeted equipment. It includes neck, shoulder press, climb and leg press as well as row machines.

"I think our student-athletes will see a great benefit both in and out of season," Pacitti shared. "I love to use machines and the circuit aspect of our setup. This is all top-of-the-line equipment."

In addition to the machines, the free weights were overhauled as well. That's from the little details of changing to pounds from kilo weights to neutral grip barbells helping save the shoulders.

Just as important to the weight development in Pacitti's mind is the focus on all areas that affect performance. An old storage closet was turned into a nutrition station that includes a presence from the campus dietician.

"She's been lights out in so many ways for our student-athletes," Pacitti added. "We've worked with both campus and external providers to assist the inventory for the area including our smoothie station. It's easy to tell them what they should eat, but having it here, on hand, really reinforces it.

"Our administration's support and commitment to our student-athletes is amazing. We've greatly improved the functionality of the facility, and I'd put it against the best of the FCS and the Group of 5 schools we recruit against."

It's not just the machines. Technology is used through a new bank of television screens tied into the staff's computers to assist in displaying the day's work and areas of focus. It was also repainted and branded as well as new flooring.