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Workers top off WATTS building at YSU campus
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Workers set the last piece of steel Friday on the frame of Youngstown State University’s newest building.
Officials from Hively Construction of Canfield and the university marked the installation at the Watson and Tressel Training Site, or WATTS Center.
“It’s a tradition of the ironworkers, along with the raising of the American flag and the placing of the Christmas tree,” said Ryan Hively, project manager.
Hively said the placing of a Christmas tree on the top of the building is an ironworkers’ tradition and symbolizes prosperity.
The WATTS Center, on the north side of campus, will be an indoor athletic-training facility.
The $11.4 million project is scheduled for completion in January, Hively said. The 120,000-square-foot facility being built on YSU’s outdoor track will include a football field, track, batting cages, training rooms and offices.
The WATTS Center is named after former YSU football coach Jim Tressel and his wife, Ellen, as well as her parents, Frank and Norma Watson. The Tressels and Watsons donated a combined $1 million to launch the training-site fundraising.
The center will be a training facility for all university athletics.
The Cafaro Foundation also pledged $1 million for the center, and its track and lobby will be named in honor of the Cafaro family.
The new center is close to Stambaugh Stadium and is expected to be used by the university’s intercollegiate baseball, football, soccer, softball and track teams as well as for student recreation and intramural sports.