Loud cheers, deafening roars and ecstatic fans pack the Hermann Student Center on campus at William Peace University for basketball games and volleyball matches.
So far this year there have been five home men’s basketball games that have all filled every single seat in the Hermann Center. The games have been so crowded that many fans have had no choice other than to stand in the corner to watch the game.
“It has been crazy to see how many people have been coming to watch our games,” said freshman WPU basketball player John Hardin. “It gets so loud in the gym during the games it feels like we are playing at Duke.”
The Hermann Center is one of the smallest gymnasiums in the USA South Athletic Conference. With only around 600 seats, the Hermann Center is four times smaller than gyms at our conference opponents Christopher Newport and Averett University.
Most of the schools in conference have capacity seating between 1,000 and 2,000 seats.
“You have to get to the games really early if you want to have a good seat,” said freshman Will Jones. “If you get there a few minutes before it starts you’re probably going to stand for the whole game.”
William Peace University has shown by going co-ed that it is hoping and expecting to dramatically increase in size in the near future.
With men now living on campus, you can definitely expect all of the home sporting events to be even more crowded.
“I think that the school is going to have to renovate the gym to add more seats sometime soon,” said Hardin. “It will make the gym look better and let even more people sit down during games.”
Adding seats in the Hermann Center will create an even more intense atmosphere and help make the campus look even better.
The new auxiliary gym, weight room and locker rooms in the Hermann Center have had fantastic reviews, but expanding the gym and adding more seats is the next step to turning our home gym into one of the best in the South.