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Athletic Center
Located at the epicenter of the Mean Green Village, the North Texas Athletic Center is a 45,000-square foot facility that provides under one roof an array of features for the education, strength, conditioning and medical treatment of the Mean Green’s student-athletes, as well as the administration of the North Texas Athletic Department.
Opened in 2005, the Athletic Center was the initial piece of the Mean Green Village, which encompasses the student-athlete residences, dining hall, and practice and game facilities for the football, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball, track & field and cross country programs (men’s and women’s basketball’s facilities are at the Super Pit, and swimming and diving are at the Pohl Recreation Center and PEB Natatorium).
The Mean Green Village was far more than a facelift for Mean Green sports. It marked a dedication to collegiate athletics such as has never existed at North Texas, bringing to fruition not just a stadium befitting a major-college football program but also modern facilities for all student-athletes, especially in women's sports.
Construction of that new student-athlete culture began with the development of a 199.5-acre area on the south side of I-35E, the former site of Eagle Point Golf Course and Liberty Christian School. Liberty Christian's property became available when the growing private school moved to a larger campus in Argyle, while the deteriorating golf course was in need of a prohibitively-expensive upgrade to survive. The golf course closed in 2003 and soon after work began on the Athletic Center and the attached Victory Hall student-athlete residences and Champs Cafeteria. Liberty Christian made its move in 2005 and, with the Athletic Center in place, work started on the rest of the Mean Green Village.
Support facilities were dramatically upgraded with the opening of a new Student-Athlete Academic Center in the Village, giving that critical department additional space and greatly improved facilities. New game venues arose in the form of softball's Lovelace Stadium, the Mean Green Soccer Stadium, the Volleyball Center, and the Waranch Tennis Complex, as well as practice facilities like the "E" Practice Facility and the Darrell S. Dickey Football Practice Facility. Construction reached new heights in 2011 with the completion of the football program's Apogee Stadium. In 2017, North Texas entered a new phase of expansion with the Soccer and Track & Field Stadium, set to open in 2018, on the south side of the Village.
But nerve center of the Village remains the Athletic Center. With its close proximity to Apogee Stadium, the Athletic Center is also home to the football coaches' offices, locker room and equipment room, but it is truly the home to all Mean Green athletics and provides state-of-the-art facilities vital to the well-being of student-athletes: Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center and its hydrotherapy room and the Strength and Conditioning Center.