Pirates Report, Unveil New Home & Embrace Details

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By Joe Corley
ECUPirates.com

Thursday held extra excitement for the ECU Football program, and not just because it was reporting day for fall camp.

The Pirates also rolled out their renovated locker room, team meeting areas, athletic training headquarters, equipment room and the new football team lounge in the Ward Sports Medicine Building.

"It was unbelievable," head coach Scottie Montgomery said. "The transformation, not only how nice and detailed it is, but the usage of space. I think (the players) thought they were going to come into another cramped situation, but it's just beautiful. The layout is great. I can't say enough about J.J. McLamb and Lee Workman, working through the last three to four months. And Dave Hart came in and gave us some more ideas and added touches to it that made it just a phenomenal facility. This is as big-time as you can imagine."

In his role as senior associate athletics director for internal operations, McLamb provides direct oversight of operations, equipment, video services, strength and conditioning, and grounds and construction projects. Plans for the project began about 12-16 months ago, he said.

"It was awesome to be there when the players saw it for the first time," McLamb said. "It was very gratifying."

It was very gratifying to the players, too, especially those who have been in the program for a few years.

"It was unreal," said Garrett McGhin, a fifth-year senior. "I kind of got a little emotional being in there, seeing everything, compared to the old stuff that we had. It's the little things, like the cold tub, which is something we've never had, and seeing all the new TVs and all the graphics, it was just unreal.

"Across the board, it was just jaw-dropping. From the kids that, this is all they know, it's the first locker room they've seen, to the guys that got to see the old stuff, it's just unreal seeing how far we've come."

This certainly should give a boost to the Pirates in recruiting. In fact, Montgomery and his staff already have been using it to their advantage.

"And now we just gave 105 student-athletes a Christmas present at the start of training camp, which is, however you want to look at it, it's juice," he said. "It's a good change of feeling and atmosphere. But in recruiting, now, it'll be a jewel. We'll use it not just for walking people through and different things, but we'll utilize the space to the best of our ability.

"It's beautiful. The excellent usage of space, the detail, very modern, but very functional. The CJ2K juice lounge that we have, we're so thankful to Chris Johnson that he was able to come in and add a juice bar and a nutrition station down there. It's really helped us. But all-around, everything that everyone else has been talking about having and using, our kids have it and ours is really, really detailed."

Kirk Doll, making his return to ECU as the special teams coordinator after previously being in charge of special teams and running backs here from 2012-15, has seen a huge transformation in the facilities from the time he first set foot on campus as a defensive end for the Pirates back in the early 1970s. He also spent time as an assistant at schools such as Texas A&M, Notre Dame and LSU, along with three seasons with the Denver Broncos in the NFL.

"I'm very excited for the players and very appreciative to all the people who have given to the Pirate Club. I'm grateful for them," he said. "From when I played, the coaches' offices and the locker rooms were over in Scales Field House, and our weight room was in the old Pirate Club Building. I think we had maybe two Universals and about five pounds of weights. We've come a long way. This puts us up with most of the Power 5 schools, and there's a lot of neat things yet to be done, but we're making great strides."

Along with what McGhin described as graphics that are "over the top," the new facility has other perks.

"We have TVs, bigger lockers, a player lounge, we have hot tubs, cold tubs, we have new equipment and new training rooms," fellow fifth-year senior Shaun James said. "We had seen glimpses of how it looked on social media, but when we saw it in person, it was nothing like we ever expected. As soon as we walked in, you just heard all the boys cheering and yelling and laughing. We had a dance-off with our teammates. It was fun to be around. It was a good moment, and it's truly a blessing."

"It's just a collective effort from the people going all the way to the Pirate Club, members of Pirate Nation, former players that gave back to the university and the athletic department," Montgomery said. "I'm just proud to be a part of the unveiling of it. It's so detailed. We've put as much time as you can imagine trying to make sure that the kids were happy about the product, and they were ecstatic."

Camp got underway with dorm check-in in the morning, followed by a team lunch. Activities after lunch included a team meeting followed by the administrative check-in and more meetings.

Afterward on the schedule was the team dinner, some team-building exercises, and lights out at 10 p.m. Players have been conditioning and working on football skills, and coaches have been planning since last season. The practice countdown to the opener Sept. 1 against North Carolina A&T will begin in earnest on Friday with conditioning tests in the morning and the first on-field practice — in shorts and helmets — in the afternoon. The first day in full gear will be Wednesday.

"We're prepared," Montgomery said. "It's not that we're preparing, no, we're prepared. At this point in time in the year, we've never been this prepared. We're a better football team and we're a better football program right now because we are prepared for what's ahead of us. We've had a great football offseason.

"A lot of times you hear about the strength and conditioning, but you don't really hear very much about the football. Equally as impressive as our strength and conditioning this offseason was our football, our usage of our coaches, installation of our offense and defense, usage of our walk-through times and our meetings times, and being able to clearly define how we want to do different things in the system. We're prepared."

CAMP NOTES
Montgomery announced the addition of four newcomers to the Pirates' roster Thursday – three true freshmen (DE Damir Faison, OL Noah Henderson, RB Tay Williams) one sophomore transfer (P Jonn Young from WVU) … Among some of the many new uniform number assignments include RB Hussein Howe (from 28 to 6), RB Darius Pinnix (27 to 7) and WR Leroy Henley (84 to 10).

Players Mentioned

Damir Faison

Noah Henderson

Leroy Henley

Hussein Howe

Shaun James

Garrett McGhin

Darius Pinnix, Jr.

Tay Williams

Jonn Young

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