Augusta, Ga. - When the Alvin and Yvette Harris Sports Performance Center opened its doors to Augusta University student-athletes, everyone knew it was a game changer. For the first time ever, the facility would have the space to handle all the athletes. Not just that, a dedicated staff to better guide the student-athletes. Now, one year in, everyone continues to sing its praises and for good reason.

Under the direction of Jacob Topple, the performance center has allowed student-athletes to hone their craft and be in peak condition for their respective sports. For Topple, he was able to build the program from pretty much the ground floor.

"It was a lot of fun to implement the culture that I wanted to see here," said Topple. 

During the course of the year, Topple has been able to add new equipment and technology to make the space even better. Also, the addition of a nutrition center has made a big impact where the student-athletes can grab something good for them, before or after, workouts and practices. 

He also gives a lot of credit to the coaches, who have worked with him to coordinate workout times and just making sure everyone is on brand for their time in the performance center. It was a work in progress at the start of the school year, but was running efficiently by the time the sports seasons had concluded. 



Topple also gives credit to the student-athletes themselves. 

"I think the biggest surprise overall was just how prepared everyone actually was coming in. It was really evident on how much this part of it was built into the culture and it was a seamless transition when I came in," said Topple. 

As far as the workouts themselves, Topple had high expectations for all the student-athletes and they delivered and worked hard when they were in the performance center.

"I think every team across the board did a good job of that. I think one of the teams that stood out to me who came in from the beginning and how detailed they were, was the women's basketball program. It was an easy team to start with and transition with," said Topple.

That being said, he was impressed with the work ethic of pretty much everyone. Topple knew the student-athletes respond differently to different styles of coaching so there was an adjustment period where he had to figure out how to push each athlete and the tone needed to get the most out of them. Just like the student-athletes having to adapt to being pushed in the performance center, Topple had to adapts to the needs of nearly 300 different student-athletes. 

Now that the baseline of everything has been established, Topple said there's still room for improvement. 

"I think just continuing to improve our nutritional area," said Topple. "We've got a lot of resources when it comes to what we've done equipment wise. Now, adding more staff to work with our athletes helps everyone out. The biggest thing that we're missing is the assistance to the nutrition piece of it to really help them. To help them drive the importance of what they're doing outside of here, and give them the tools to be succesfull when it comes to that stuff." 

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