More than 100 student athletes, donors and UTSA staffers gathered at the new Park West Fieldhouse Thursday to celebrate the grand opening of the university’s latest addition to the Park West Athletics Complex on the Northwest Side.
Tameka Roberts-Nunez was among those who toured the training facility with her family, gazing proudly on the Tameka Roberts-Nunez & Lupe Nunez Women’s Track and Field Lounge, named after her and her husband, who met at UTSA.
Roberts-Nunez, the most decorated female athlete in UTSA history, seven-time All-American honoree and U.S. Olympic Trial qualifier in the 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump, won several awards and accolades through the 1990s, when she said there were no locker rooms for female track athletes.
“I hope the athletes enjoy this locker room and enjoy having the resources that they so deserve. I’m so happy and proud of them,” Roberts-Nunez said.
The facility will house UTSA’s women’s soccer and men’s and women’s track and field and cross country programs. When athletes aren’t meeting in the lounge after games or for practice, UTSA’s field house is open for public use. As a partnership between the county and the university, the field house facility is intended to improve public health and wellness.
UTSA supporters and athletes applauded as President Taylor Eighmy presented Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and Precinct 3 County Commissioner Grant Moody with an honorary plaque at the opening event, commemorating the county’s $8 million contribution to the project. The rest of the project’s undisclosed cost was covered by philanthropic gifts.
Commissioners approved the funding in February 2022 under the leadership of former Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.
The dollars were designated for the Roadrunner Foundation, which supports UTSA athletics. Gene Dawson, president of the Roadrunner Foundation, said the county’s investment into the foundation will generate a $24 million economic impact for the San Antonio community.
Now that the field house is complete, the foundation will gift it to UTSA, Dawson said.
“The collaboration and alignment in this project is going to benefit everyone: Thousands of UTSA student-athletes, but also younger athletes who will have access to this facility,” said Mike Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference.
Sitting on UTSA’s Park West Athletics Complex adjacent to Loop 1604, the 14,325-square-foot field house facility has athletic training rooms for sports medicine, trainer’s offices, an equipment and laundry room and meeting spaces for coaches and athletes. The university hosts women’s soccer home matches as well as track & field meets at the Park West Athletics Complex.
While the grand opening was going on, about 125 children ages 5 to 12 ran drills outside as part of UTSA’s Soccer Academy summer program.
Head women’s soccer coach Derek Pittman said the new facility will help attract nationally recognized athletes to UTSA.
“We want to live up to those expectations, no doubt,” Pittman said. “We recruit really hard-working, highly-competitive kids. When you have that mixture and the culture we have, we have no doubt we’re going to continue to be successful as we move forward.”
Having a locker room, lounge area and laundry rooms approximately 30 feet from the fields are game-changers for the athletes on UTSA’s track and soccer teams, he said.
“We have never had locker rooms in the 15 years of the program, this is the first time we have our own locker rooms,” he said.
Avery Chaney, a UTSA soccer student-athlete, thanked donors for making the facility possible.
“You saw the potential in our dreams and fueled our journey with your labor and support,” she said. “We now have a place to call home.”
