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

Gallery: (3-10-2025) Club Sports Athletic Training

On Jan. 21, the first week of the spring semester, Liberty University officially opened its new Club Sports Athletic Training Clinic on the second floor of the new 1,500-space North Campus Parking Garage. It is in the precise location where the clinic stood previously, but nearly twice the size, with a much more open atmosphere and functional layout and some 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."

The new facility hosted an open house on March 3 with 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 among the distinguished guests.

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.

Those visiting the facility for the first time were pleasantly surprised by the space.

"All the athletes that I've encountered have walked in like, 'Wow, (Liberty) did this for us?'" Witt said. "There's not many Club Sports programs in the country that have this just for Club Sports athletes. So, I do think that it makes our athletes feel important and valued."

She said that is the mission of her athletic training staff, with seven full-time employees servicing more than 700 student-athletes from 44 distinct men's and women's teams.

"That's why we are here as Club Sports, to serve our athletes," Witt said. "The better we can treat them, that helps with retention, and when a recruit walks in, they're like, 'Wow, this is Club Sports?' It just blows them away. It validates Liberty University Club Sports and what we're pouring into our athletes. It's a huge blessing for our athletes and for our staff."

Witt actually took a class on designing an athletic training room in the mid-1990s, while pursuing her B.S. in Physical Education at Liberty with a minor in athletic training, before that became strictly an entry level master's degree program in 2022.

"I probably don't remember too much from that class, but what I do know after 28 years of experience as an athletic trainer is what needs to be in here and what doesn't," Witt said. "I went to visit a couple of different facilities, including the Liberty Athletics Center, to get an idea of what we wanted. Taking all of that experience and what we've gone without for so long, I knew what we needed to put in here to make it fully functional, the adequate treatment space and adequate recovery space."

The central location between other Club Sports facilities on North Campus, and more than adequate parking available in the new garage, make the new training clinic's 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."

During the previous two semesters, a temporary makeshift athletic training base was set up in the former Reber-Thomas Dining Hall, with smaller training rooms also available in the LaHaye Ice Center — mainly for men's and women's hockey players — as well as the Liberty Club Sports Complex, mostly used by men's and women's wrestlers.

"We really want to try to hone everybody in here because we have more capabilities and more equipment to use and the space to do that now," Witt said.

The clinic includes between $70,000 and $75,000 worth of new amenities, including hot and cold tubs, one maintained at about 104 degrees and the other at around 55.

"The warm and cold tubs are a highlight for the athletes; they love those," Witt said. "The tubs alone were $54,000, the Keiser (pneumatic resistance training system that uses air pressure from a compressor rather than weights) machine was about $14,000, plus we purchased a couple new (training) tables, and a new doctor's table that was about $3,000.

The treatment area includes six treatment tables and a taping table, plus four additional rehab/recovery tables for a total of 11. 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 rehabilitated from a severe back injury at the start of her senior season in 2023-24, making several trips to the old Reber-Thomas Food Court site.

"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."

The open house helped Liberty 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."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video edited by Noah Ritcher/Club Sports Video & Media Assistant

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

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