Top Water Therapy Rooms in College Football: Who made the cut?

Top Water Therapy Rooms in College Football: Who made the cut?

Recently a new “Arm’s Race” article was posted on the Saturday Down South website, written by Kevin Duffey, titled “The Top Hydrotherapy pools in college football.” With the college football season well underway, this article could not be more timely and appropriate.

Only 10 college football facilities were lucky enough to make the cut, and out of those ten schools, nine of them have HydroWorx aquatic therapy and performance pools within their athletic training facilities! We are so grateful to be a part of these universities, and to call them customers.

Of course prior to making this list and having the athletic facilities as gorgeous as they are, a great deal of planning must take place. Questions such as ‘What type of pool should you choose?”, “Where should the pools be located?”, “How do we arrange and design the athletic training facility?’, among many more all have to be discussed.

We talked to two sports medicine professionals about their hydrotherapy rooms to offer up some insight on the decision making process. Jerry Weber, ATC, PT, Head Athletic Trainer for the University of Nebraska and Director of Sports Medicine from the University of Tennessee, Jason McVeigh MS, PT, SCS, ATC, LAT, shared some interesting information about how and why there were named to this elite list.

Why did you choose aquatic therapy for your facility and more specifically why HydroWorx?

• Weber (Nebraska): “We had wanted to include hydrotherapy plunge pools and underwater treadmill capabilities for the past 10-12 years, but we did not have the space to do so. When we began the process of

  

  designing our new facility 8 years ago (we have been in our current space for 6 years) we knew that we wanted to include HydroWorx plunge pools and an aquatic therapy pool with an underwater treadmill to go into our main training room. That hydrotherapy area was also to include a three lane 20 yard in ground, three level therapy/swimming pool (as you can see in the image). I had been aware of the options available in the marketplace for many years. When we finally got the green light for the new training room space, we wanted an area big enough to accommodate our entire staff in the mornings well as all of our athletic teams in one central location. We were able to this with this 14,000 square foot facility. It was a no brainer to choose the equipment that HydroWorx offers.  I had seen the placement of plunge pools in other facilities and decided to build our plunge pools up off the ground about 20 inches—this allows our athletes ease of entry and exit without having to get down on the ground.”

• McVeigh (UT): “We believe strongly in the rehab and recovery power of aquatic therapy at Tennessee.  HydroWorx is well known around the sports medicine industry as a company that takes pride in their aquatic therapy products, and we were determined to provide the best resources for our student-athletes.  Partnering with HydroWorx on our new training center was one of our top priorities.

Where are your hydrotherapy pools in your athletic facility and who uses them? 

• Weber (Nebraska): “The HydroWorx 500 Series pool was installed even though we had a full swimming pool going into the facility.  The ability to work in the water with control of speed and the observation of the underwater cameras was seen as essential for our rehab center.  I had the ability to visit a number of new athletic training centers around the country prior to finalizing our plans and it became clear during those visits that the HydroWorx products were the leaders in the field and needed to be specified for our construction needs. This main hydrotherapy center is located in the Athletic Medicine Center in the Tom Osborne Athletic Complex at the north end of Memorial Stadium.  This facility opened in August of 2006 and is the headquarters of the entire athletic medicine staff.  All athletes have access to this facility as well as 8 other satellite training rooms scattered around campus at specific sport practice and event facilities.  Since the opening of this facility the athletic department has added new training centers for men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling with the addition of two more HydroWorx plunge pools and plans to add another therapy pool with an underwater treadmill in the near future.”   

  

• McVeigh (UT):   “We now offer our student-athletes access to 8 different HydroWorx pools around our various facilities.  Our newest facility, the Anderson Training Center, houses two 14’ x 7’ Hot/Cold Plunge pools as well as two HydroWorx 1200 Series pools (in the image) adjacent to our Sports Medicine Department.  Our new aquatic therapy room is open to all of our student-athletes for their rehabilitation needs.” 

“We are proud of our new training facility, and we are pleased to see it recognized as one of the premier facilities in college athletics.  We believe the resources in our new facility will give our student-athletes the optimum environment to recover, train, and rehabilitate their injuries, to allow them to maximize their performance potential.”- Jason McVeigh (Director of Sports Medicine at UT)