During my tenure in the sports flooring manufacturing industry, I became quite the expert on sports flooring topics. As a result, I was asked to be a guest contributor for various publications. Here are a few examples of the articles I wrote.
Making your campus the most attractive option to potential students is a monumental task, and also one of the most important to keep a college thriving and growing. The campus rec center plays a major role in recruiting students of all athletic interests. But how do they differentiate from all the other campus rec centers? What makes them the most appealing option to make students say, “This is where I want to be”?
While there are a variety of factors at play in that decision, one factor rarely mentioned is the quality of the rec center floor. High school athletes who enter college without committing to college level sports, but still want to be active, will choose to participate in intramural sports. Campus directors all over the U.S. know their health and safety are just as important as the college level athlete, so why not tell them during the touring stage?
It is easy to understand how this message can be overlooked. Plus, it is not as exciting to talk about as the rock climbing walls or the massage suites. So how can rec centers use this to their advantage and let students know their safety is a top priority? Here are a few tips for ensuring this message is relayed to potential new students:
Advertise it.
More and more rec centers are putting up signage with information about the sports floor that can be attached to the gymnasium wall. The name of the floor and how it helps athletes is the perfect place to start. Placing it on a wall will allow parents to be educated about the facility floor during campus tours. After all, parents of college students invested thousands of dollars in the right shoes, braces, padding, helmets, etc. to protect their child in their youth sports. They would be happy to learn about your commitment to do the same. You can also provide similar information on the rec center website and in brochures.
View the full article here.
Enticing students to take advantage of all the activities offered at the university rec center to increase usage is an ongoing challenge for rec center directors. Not only do the activities and sports have to appeal to students and staff, the facility also has to be designed to accommodate all of those activities as well.
Facility directors and administrators need to consider the crucial role flooring plays in making accommodations appealing to a variety of students.
Hundreds of Thousands of Steps
In a true multipurpose rec center, choosing the right flooring can have a powerful effect on the overall success of the facility. With the rec center serving the university in a multitude of ways-and sometimes the community also-equipment, students, and shoes of every kind will come into daily contact with the floor.
Hundreds of thousands of steps will be taken on an annual basis. And with that much usage you need to make sure your floor can hold up under the stress to prevent unnecessary maintenance and repairs.
When Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, opened their new state-of-the-art athletic and wellness complex, The Leonard Center, in 2008, the 53,000-square-foot facility not only provided new space for student fitness and intramural sports, but it also qualified the small NCAA Division III liberal arts college to host regional and national athletic competitions. With this opportunity, choosing the floor surfaces that accommodated all activities and competitions took an even higher precedence.
View the full article here.
Anyone responsible for a large purchasing decision can quickly grow overwhelmed during the research phase, especially when trying to review all available options. If you are the person in charge of researching and selecting a new floor for your gymnasium or fitness area, you have likely experienced this frustration.
After all, the surface of athletic floors all look the same, so that makes them all equal, right? Not quite.
Critical Importance of Subfloor Build-Up
Beneath the surface of a shiny hardwood floor with painted school logos and gamelines is a well-engineered subfloor consisting of just the right amount of mechanical features that provide protection for the athlete. The subfloor build-up is critical to the long-term health and safety of the athlete since the floor can have a significant impact on joints, muscles, and the endurance of the player.
Design and construction of the floor is actually a science. While it is great to have a floor that looks good on camera or from the stands, it’s actually more important to have a safe floor that improves performance and enhances the endurance of the athlete. This means, along with analyzing other criteria, you are called to determine which floors are the safest. There are several things to consider when selecting a new floor. With all the options available, you must first consider your budget, floor thickness requirements, climate and humidity levels, activity and purpose, hardwood or synthetic, location, size requirements, and other factors. Once you analyze your needs and budget, and are “keeping it real” by considering your requirements first, you have narrowed down the options significantly.
View the full article here.
© 2025 Jamie Darpel. All rights reserved.
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