{"id":2413,"date":"2014-09-12T15:42:59","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T19:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/?page_id=2413"},"modified":"2014-09-12T15:42:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T19:42:59","slug":"specialized-dining-facility-for-athletes-opens-this-fall-at-hecht-stanford","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/our-reporting\/specialized-dining-facility-for-athletes-opens-this-fall-at-hecht-stanford\/","title":{"rendered":"Specialized dining facility for athletes opens this fall at Hecht-Stanford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted September 12, 2014<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By MEAGHAN McCLURE<\/p>\n

Part of both the Momentum 2 and Hurricane Club\u2019s \u201cBuilding Champions\u201d campaigns, the University of Miami opened a specialized dining facility for its student-athletes in the 2014 fall semester.<\/p>\n

Named the Athlete Training Table, it is part of the newly renovated Hecht-Stanford Dining Hall. The section is open to all students for breakfast and lunch, but specifically reserved for student-athletes during dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dining facility will provide proper nutritional supervision and guidance tailored specifically to each student-athlete which will maximize his or her peak performance,\u201d according to the university’s website.<\/p>\n

The new dining experience is not the only new project aimed to improve athletic performance.<\/p>\n

The Athlete Training Table is financed by the Victory Fund, an initiative announced in 2013 to \u201caggressively address the most pressing needs of our football program,\u201d according to the Victory Fund\u2019s website. Raising $7 million, the Victory Fund financed three projects: a new football practice field with lighting, a cold plunge recovery zone and the Athlete Training Table dining experience.<\/p>\n

The Victory Fund is an initiative of the Hurricane Club\u2019s \u201cBuilding Champions\u201d campaign, which is also funded the $15 million Theodore G. Schwartz and Todd G. Schwartz Center for Athletic Excellence, opened in 2013.<\/p>\n

According to the University\u2019s website, these projects \u201cwill provide the very best experience and resources for our dedicated student-athletes.\u201d All the new athletic assets have created quite a buzz with those involved.<\/p>\n

Much anticipation and excitement followed all the new changes and improvements revolving around the athletic department, especially the Athlete Training Table. When Miami Athletic Director Blake James was asked to comment on the project for this article, he expressed his enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited to open the new student-athlete dining center. This project further demonstrates our commitment to provide our student-athletes with the resources they need to achieve excellence,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

James used similar language talking about the general whole of the Victory Fund, saying the Fund \u201cwill allow us to provide the resources to win championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration isn\u2019t alone in its excitement about the project. Student-athletes conveyed their eagerness for a new and improved dining experience as well.<\/p>\n

Davon Reed, a sophomore on the men\u2019s basketball team, explained his reasoning behind his support of athlete-specific dining.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t eaten there yet, but the idea is great. Us athletes expend a lot of energy and we need larger portions and better food to refuel. I hope this student-athlete dining hall will provide that for us,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

Sophomore football player, Ray Lewis III, had similar thoughts, with one noted drawback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they did a good job on the architecture of it and it\u2019s a lot more spacious than the old dining hall. Really it\u2019s just designed better all around, but the food\u2019s exactly the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone on campus is happy about the new student-athlete dining section, however. Some Miami students think of the reserved dining section as unfair to the rest of the student body, who may not be as athletically gifted but instead excel with academics.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Andrea Vorlicek described the separate dining as unequal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s unfair for the athletes to get their own section because I think we\u2019re all equal students. They\u2019re not better than me and I\u2019m not better than them, they perform on the field and I perform in the classroom. In the end we\u2019re all students, and we should all get the same benefits,\u201d Vorlicek said.<\/p>\n

Other students see the Athlete Training Table as somewhat reasonable, but still share many of the same concerns as Vorlicek.<\/p>\n

Erin Moncrief, also a sophomore, answered in this way when asked her opinions on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost Division I schools already have separate dining for athletes so I feel like the athlete section was kind of a necessity and it\u2019s a more effective way of organizing the dining hall to reduce traffic. For me personally, the downside is that the students don\u2019t really get to interact with athletes anymore and since I\u2019m an athletic training major, eating with them used to give me a chance to know them better. As a side note, I think it\u2019s kind of unfair that they might get better food than the rest of us,\u201d Moncrief stated.<\/p>\n

Attempts to talk with administrators for Dining Services about the Dining Master Plan were not successful. School officials declined to comment when contacted on two occasions.<\/p>\n

The renovated Hecht-Stanford Dining Hall opened before the Fall 2014 semester. This project, involving athletic dining, was part of the University\u2019s Dining Master Plan.<\/p>\n

Other projects included in the plan were finished earlier in the year; the makeover of the Mahoney-Pearson Dining Hall, a renewed Food Court, and the addition of Einstein Bros. Bagels, the Outtakes convenience store, Lime, a second campus Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and Made 2 Order. Two more dining retail options can be expected before Spring 2015 upon completion of the plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted September 12, 2014 By MEAGHAN McCLURE Part of both the Momentum 2 and Hurricane Club\u2019s \u201cBuilding Champions\u201d campaigns, the University of Miami opened a specialized dining facility for its student-athletes in the 2014 fall semester. Named the Athlete Training … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":46,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2413","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2415,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2413\/revisions\/2415"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}