"It's good for all of us": UNM unveils New Mexico Mutual Champions Training Center

Apr. 20—Don't be surprised if University of New Mexico student-athletes are just a bit more motivated for their upcoming workouts.

UNM officially opened its shiny new New Mexico Mutual Champions Training Center on Thursday and the optics were undeniably impressive.

Located on the north side of the school's Tow Diehm facility, the 11,312-square foot training center opens onto University Stadium's south end zone. The windowed front exposure provides ample natural light and an inspiring stadium view.

More than 200 people, many of them student-athletes from UNM's various athletic teams, got their first look at the new training center after Thursday's official ribbon cutting ceremonty.

"It's amazing," said Sophia Zamarripa, a member of UNM's women's golf team. "We're a small team so we could probably just use one station, but it's really cool to see all the athletes represented in here. It's a great facility."

Thursday's opening came slightly more than a year after UNM held the official groundbreaking for the much-needed, $5.6 million center. It will replace a temporary training facility housed in a large tent near the school's athletic department offices.

The tent, best known for its gloomy atmosphere and mediocre heating and cooling, had been in service for more than six years.

Shortly after Thursday's ribbon cutting, Lobos women's soccer coach Heather Dyche snapped photos from the new center's balcony. Dyche and her players will not be heartbroken to leave the tent behind.

"I think this facility is great for the university," she said. "It really helps having something like this to show recruits, and the players love it."

The new training center features two levels, a 9,774-square-foot weight-training floor and a 1,538-square-foot cardio mezzanine. The former includes numerous universal machines and free-weight stations, while the latter includes everything from standard treadmills to a zero-gravity model designed to help with injury rehab.

As one might expect, the center's interior decorators followed an unmistakable pro-Lobos theme. "Fighting ever, yielding never," a phrase from the UNM fight song, adorns the back wall with a large Lobo shield and photos of athletes from various sports splashed throughout open space.

"I like the pictures and all the details," UNM women's basketball player Aniyah Augmon said. "It's a nice atmosphere. It's good to see things changing and getting expanded. It's good for all of us."

UNM president Garnett Stokes, athletic director Eddie Nuñez and Kellie Mixon, president/CEO of name sponsor New Mexico Mutual, spoke briefly about the project before Mixon cut the ceremonial red ribbon. The project has been on the school's to-do list for years, but Nuñez said cost and completion were impacted by the pandemic.

"Overall, it probably added about a $1 million to this project," he said. "Fortunately, (Mixon), the people at New Mexico Mutual and all our other donors stuck with us and made it happen for our student-athletes."

UNM football coach Danny Gonzales has championed the training center, which will get plenty of television exposure as players come through its exits prior to Lobo football games. Stokes also sees the facility as a drawing card for the school.

"The athletics department many times is a doorway to this university," she said. "Opening a state-of-the-art facility like this, it's an incredible day for the university and our student-athletes."

The new center is not UNM's only weight-training facility for student-athletes. A smaller room located on the south end of the Tow Diehm complex has been used primarily by football until Gonzales more recently encouraged other UNM teams to use it.

UNM's men's and women's basketball teams have a separate training center inside the Rudy Davalos Basketball Center, which Nuñez said will soon be receiving some upgrades.

However, Nuñez emphasized that the new training center will be open to all UNM student-athletes.