Pleasing Everyone: New Fitness Spaces Take Gordon College's Rec Center to the Next Level

As director of campus recreation at Gordon College, Greg Scruton knew the main fitness area at Bennet Center was too crowded. The facility couldn’t accommodate both students and the school’s many athletics teams. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which only complicated matters. Scruton moved some cardio and selectorized equipment into one of the facility’s three racquetball courts, hoping to allow students to spread out while exercising. Once things returned to normal, Scruton realized he had unwittingly set the stage for the facility’s future.

“I decided to keep that racquetball court offline just to see whether people would miss it,” explains Scruton. “Could we still function without a third racquetball court? And over those couple of years, no one really said anything, which told me we could probably turn this into something else.”

And that’s exactly what the school did when it repurposed the offline racquetball court into a strength and conditioning room and moved a group x studio to another part of campus to create a functional fitness area in that space.

The strength and conditioning studio is equipped with eight Matrix MX half racks that support both squats and bench press modalities. There’s also a storage rack for medicine balls, kettlebells and dumbbells. The functional training area now has versatile monkey rigs and TRX suspension equipment, as well as plenty of space to allow for a variety of body weight exercises.

“It was just a lot of people in our main fitness area at one time,” says Scruton. “And we were really looking at how to allow sports teams to be able to work out together, allow them to really build that culture and community. But then also, how do we really allow the student body to be able to work out and exercise as well in their space?”

While the athletics programs get priority in the strength and conditioning room, students are allowed to use it when it’s available. The functional training area, on the other hand, can be used by students and student-athletes at any time. And the new space has also dramatically reduced congestion in the main fitness area.

Scruton had already invested in Matrix cardio equipment for the center’s main fitness area, and he’d been happy with the company’s bikes, treadmills and selectorized equipment in the past, so he decided to inquire about having Matrix outfit the new spaces. Matrix delivered in both spaces, providing squat and bench racks for the strength and conditioning area, monkey rigs (from Matrix-affiliate brand XULT) for the functional training area and all the ancillary equipment the spaces needed — medicine balls, resistance bands, kettlebells, dumbbells and plyo boxes.

“With the racks that we have in the functional training room, you can make them any size, any shape you want,” says Scruton. “And in the strength area, if we want to add attachments, we can create more squat racks, or more bench presses, or anything like that. This really allows us to continue to expand the exercise and weight training space in the future, and we can always add those attachments onto those racks if we want to.”

Scruton says he also chose Matrix for the company’s exceptional customer service. “I’ve just had a great relationship with our customer service rep there for a number of years. And the product that they offer is great,” says Scruton. “When they’ve had to service equipment, they come in a timely manner. The technicians are great. They’re well-trained. They’re informed. If I picked up the phone and called about a problem, they’re there in a day.”

The project was completed during the students’ winter break, and Scruton says the wow factor upon their return was palpable.

“When they showed back up from break, they were really surprised,” says Scruton. “The athletes were like, ‘This is awesome. This is exactly what we’ve wanted,’ and the student body has really been very excited with the changes that have been made. And it just really creates room for everyone. It’s been great.”