Empowering Coaches in Facility/Equipment Projects & Purchases

It’s an exciting time for your program—your school has just announced plans for a brand-new track and field complex! Picture it: a new oval, upgraded runways, modern cages, fresh sand pits, vault boxes, and all the essential equipment like pits, standards, hurdles, and more. Could you BE any more excited?

Meetings are happening all around you. Your athletic director is meeting with architects, contractors, and track consultants. You’re hearing new terms like “track provider,” “general contractor,” and “construction schedule.” Your team is buzzing with questions: “Coach, how many runways will we get?” “Are we getting new pits and standards?” “Can we get a hammer and discus cage facing the mountain to catch that perfect quartering wind?” “What about vault boxes—can we have more than one to take advantage of different wind conditions?”

And yet, you don’t have the answers. Despite the excitement, you’re not in the meetings. The athletic director, architects, and contractors are making critical decisions about a facility that you and your athletes will use daily—without your input.

Maybe they’ll throw you a bone: “When it’s time to pick the hurdle color, we’ll let you know, coach.” But by then, the big decisions will already be made.

Why Coaches Need to Be Involved

As someone who has been involved in numerous track and field facility construction projects, it never ceases to amaze me how often coaches are left out of the planning process. The very people who know the most about how the facility will be used are frequently excluded from discussions about its design and functionality.

Coaches are on the ground every day. You know the prevailing winds, the best placement for vault boxes, the ideal layout for sand pits, and the safety implications of where equipment is installed. Critical decisions like whether the steeplechase pit should be inside or outside the track (hint: it’s inside) are best made with your input. So why are you often left out of the conversation?

Why Coaches Hold Back

Now, if you’re a coach reading this, you might be nodding along, thinking, “Yeah, why don’t they ask for my opinion?” But here’s the flip side: too often, coaches are content to stay in the background. Maybe you’re just happy that a new facility is being built at all. Perhaps you’ve been conditioned to accept whatever you get, because in the past, other programs always took priority when it came to budgets, facilities, and scheduling.

This mindset—this reluctance to speak up—leads to real problems. When coaches aren’t involved in the planning process, costly mistakes happen. And who suffers? Your athletes.

The Cost of Exclusion

I’ve been involved in projects where track coaches weren’t consulted, and I can tell you with certainty: when coaches aren’t at the table, flaws in the facility are almost inevitable. Misplaced pole vault boxes, incorrectly positioned long jump and triple jump boards (or none at all!), improperly placed discus cages that make them unsafe—these are just a few examples of what can go wrong.

In some cases, the flaws are minor, and you find a workaround, though it often comes at the cost of functionality for you and your athletes. In other cases, these mistakes are expensive to fix. Here’s one particularly shocking example:

An Expensive Mistake: I know of a college that built a beautiful 8-lane track with no sand pits, no throwing circles or cages, no steeplechase pit, no vault boxes, and no curbing. In short, they built a fantastic practice track—but not one that could host meets. The school has since had to purchase raised runways for pole vault and long jump/triple jump, as well as portable discus cages and circles. They’re now trying to secure additional land to build a hammer cage, but that project is years away. Do you think the school asked its long-time track and field coach for input before they approved the build? I’ll give you a hint: no.

The Power of Involvement

On the flip side, in every project where the track coach was regularly consulted throughout the process, the result has been a facility with few, if any, flaws—one that meets the needs of both current and future athletes.

A Success Story: Take the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross Athletics South Competition and Performance Center. Head track coach Jerry Clayton was involved in every discussion about the design of both the indoor and outdoor track complexes. Jerry’s extensive experience with track facilities worldwide allowed him to provide invaluable input on equipment placement, material selection, and the overall layout. The result? A first-class facility completed on time and on budget, with zero costly mistakes. Jerry’s involvement ensured that future Wolverines teams will benefit from one of the nation’s top track complexes.

Take Your Seat at the Table

As a coach, you are the expert when it comes to your team’s needs and how a facility should function. You understand the unique challenges of your sport and the specific requirements for safety and performance. Don’t let the excitement of getting a new facility stop you from advocating for what your athletes need.

Of note, when coaches/ADs prioritize the lowest price when it comes to purchasing decisions, that mindset can lead to compromises that affect the long-term functionality of your facility. Instead, use your voice. Stand up and be heard. Advocate for a facility that works for your program—not just today, but for years to come.

Because in the end, when you don’t choose, you and your athletes are the ones who lose.