New Club Sports Athletic Training Clinic facilitates student-athletes’ injury recovery

Liberty University recently opened its new Club Sports Athletic Training Clinic on the second floor of the new North Campus Garage to serve student-athletes in its thriving Club Sports program. The facility is in the same general location as the former clinic but nearly twice the size, with a more open atmosphere and functional layout as well as new state-of-the-art equipment.

“We had about 3,000 square feet here before and we have about 5,000 square feet now,” said Club Sports Associate Athletic Director for Sports Medicine Angie Witt, who helped design the new facility. “It’s definitely more functional than the facility we had before. The architects … gave me a good amount of freedom when it came to designing the place, around their parameters. I told them what we wanted and what we needed, and how we wanted it laid out.”

W.M. Jordan was the contractor and Baskervill the architect of the 71,169-square-foot garage, along with the clinic and the data center located beneath it.

“Millions of dollars have been poured into this facility, and I feel like I’m at home finally in a permanent spot that Liberty has provided for us to do our job,” Witt said. “It gives me the opportunity to bring people into my office and have enough space to do that, and with the privacy of the doctor’s office, there’s so much more that we can do with this space.”

To enhance care and expertise, the Club Sports Athletic Training Clinic is contracted to Liberty through Collaborative Health Partners.

“It was a collaborative effort to make this happen for us and we’re pleased to be a part of both (CHP and LU),” Witt said.

The central location between other Club Sports facilities on North Campus and more than adequate parking available in the garage make the new setting ideal.

“It’s closer to the (LaHaye Ice Center) rink, it’s closer to the triathlon team’s indoor training center and all of our practice venues,” Witt said. “There’s really nothing else on the second floor of this garage so we have all the parking we need. Athletes can drive here, and it is way more convenient for them when they can just park and walk right in.”

The clinic includes about $75,000 worth of new amenities, including hot and cold tubs, the Keiser machine (pneumatic resistance training system that uses air pressure from a compressor rather than weights), new training tables, and a new doctor’s table. The treatment area includes six treatment tables and a taping table, plus four additional rehab/recovery tables. A cardio station, mostly used for surgery and concussion recovery, includes a low-impact elliptical machine and stationary bike, as well as recovery boots after heavy leg workouts that push the lactic acid up through the body.

Lady Flames Division I women’s hockey goalie Kyle Mebs recovered from a concussion her sophomore year, when the athletic training clinic was located in the former Liberty Christian Academy football fieldhouse, and she rehabilitated from a severe back injury at the start of her senior season in 2023-24, making several trips to the old site at the former Food Court at Reber-Thomas.

“There’s lots of different recoveries and treatments that we can do in one space now,” she said. “It’s nice that (the athletic trainers, physicians, and physical therapists) all have their own offices and space to work here, too.”

An open house was held on March 3. Distinguished guests included Liberty President Dondi E. Costin, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Scott Hicks, Senior Vice President of Construction and Facilities Management Dan Deter, Collaborative Health Partners CEO Shawn Crawford, Director of Athletics Ian McCaw, and Club Sports Athletic Director Kirk Handy, and Deputy Athletic Director Jeff Boettger. The event was also an opportunity to recognize March as the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s National Athletic Training Month, with this year’s motto celebrating athletic trainers as “Champions in Health Care.”

“It obviously goes along super well with Liberty’s mission and our university’s motto of Training Champions for Christ,” Witt said, noting that is the aim of the Club Sports athletic training staff. “God has called us to do whatever we do for His glory, and we just want to be the best we can be. Ephesians 4:1 and Colossians 1:10 (stenciled above her office and her staff’s medical licenses and certifications) talk about walking in a manner worthy of your calling, and we take that pretty seriously around here. Our calling is to serve athletes, but also our calling is to share Jesus. We are ‘Champions in Health Care,’ but our main goal is to Train Champions for Christ.”