City, state leaders attend grand opening of new Lipscomb Academy athletic facility
Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 |
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, Congressman Jim Cooper and Candice McQueen, Tennessee education commissioner, were on hand Oct. 21 in the neighborhood to recognize the opening of Lipscomb Academy’s McCadams Athletic Center, a $5 million, 25,000-square-foot indoor training facility for Lipscomb Academy students.
A crowd of several hundred Nashville leaders and donors as well as Lipscomb Academy administrators, parents and student athletes turned out to see the ribbon-cutting for the facility, named in honor of the late Glenn McCadams, longtime Mustang football coach and athletic director.
The McCadams Athletic Center, located near the intersection of Lealand and Caldwell lanes in the academy’s Reese L. Smith Athletics Complex, is a state-of-the-art training facility for all sports. It includes a climate-controlled, turfed indoor practice facility, a girls’ locker room, a team meeting room and conference room, new public restrooms and an outdoor terrace/special event space overlooking the football field.
The new practice field is named the C. O. Christian Jr. Family Training Field in honor of the late Oakley Christian, owner of C.O. Christian & Sons, who died last month and was a longtime supporter of Lipscomb Academy sports, former Mustang football assistant and close friends with McCadams.
“This facility shows how much the adults who have made this facility possible care about the children and future generations here,” Barry told the crowd gathered on the chilly late-October afternoon. “Your generous spirit shows. As Nashville continues to boom, you’ll see that our community will extend to this campus. You (Lipscomb) have been a mainstay to our community for 125 years. I congratulate you on all of the wonderful work that you continue to do and for serving our kids so well.”
“Today marks yet another landmark in the tremendous progress this institution continues to make in our community and in the world,” said Cooper. “You really have something to be proud of here.”
As an example of the Lipscomb “difference,” Cooper relayed a story of finding a $10 bill in the parking lot as he arrived for the ceremony.
“I think this is probably the only community anywhere that would have enough ethics and honor for me to hold it up to ask who lost it and no one claim it,” he said. “I think it’s the only place on earth where there wouldn’t be 100 people claiming it. It really pays tribute to Lipscomb’s values. Ethics and honor are so important. There is a higher calling, and Lipscomb understands that.”
McQueen, former dean of Lipscomb’s College of Education and senior vice president at the university, said she has visited a number of facilities at schools across the state as commissioner of education, but that Lipscomb Academy’s is one of the best she has seen.
“This was a labor of love for everyone involved in making this vision a reality, and I had the privilege of being a part of this project as we began plans for it,” she said. “It is exciting. I see so many people here who I know and love and know that you had a vision for this as well. I love that this facility serves our students.”
The facility has already been busy. Shortly after construction on the facility was completed in September, the MAC served as host to Jon Robinson, general manager of the Tennessee Titans at Lipscomb’s quarterly business networking event, the Nashville Business Breakfast.
Mike Keith, director of broadcasting for the Titans, joined Robinson at the breakfast where guests sat at tables on the artificial turf practice field and got an inside view of what it is like to be the GM of a major professional football team.
Robinson was named Titans GM in January 2016 after spending the previous two seasons as director of player personnel with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His shared vision with Titans head coach Mike Mularkey is to find players that are physical, team-first and accountable, he said at the event.
“We set out, back in January, talking about the type of football team we wanted to be—a tough, dependable team first. You guys have heard that mantra a million times from me,” Robinson said. “We wanted to be really competitive. We wanted the guys to come in and have certain skills but also have a mindset and a makeup as a player that they wanted to make themselves better.
“No matter what your role is on the football team, everybody has to have the same mindset: to have pride about their job, to do whatever they are responsible for to the best of their ability and know they are a valued member of our football team,” Robinson said. “We can only go as far as the entire organization is willing to go. I’m trying to implement that mindset—to go the extra mile—and that will put us in the position we need to be in.”
Future projects include an addition to and renovation of the current football stadium which includes construction of Mustang Plaza, a plaza that will connect the new McCadams Athletic Center to the existing stadium and showcase the academy’s rich history of excellence in athletics. An additional project phase includes converting the football field to an artificial turf surface that will provide year-round use for multiple sports; new stadium and track lighting, as well as a new scoreboard; and a refurbishing of the track surrounding the complex with the addition of the Victory Trail, an experiential walking surface will encircle the entire complex, complete with fitness stations and spiritual meditation spaces.
—Photos by Mitchell Despot