Reser is empty and baking in the July sun and Gill Coliseum is so deserted the lights are shut off. Tucked between the two buildings is the two-month old Gill Annex, better known as the Sports Performance Center (SPC), and its staff.
“If the building is open, we are here,” Bryan Miller, interim strength and conditioning director said. “I start with volleyball at 6:30 a.m.”
Ouch.
“The president says, ‘No Child Left Behind,'” Miller said. We say, ‘No Athlete Left Behind.'”
And the athletes aren’t. 
The SPC includes approximately 40,000 pounds of new equipment situated in approximately 20,000 square feet – nearly three times the size of the old weight room in Valley Football Center.
The facility also includes an indoor track for speed and agility drills, state-of-the-art sound and video systems, free weights, 22 Olympic platforms, 22 power racks and adjustable benches, six sets of dumbbells and 45 pieces of cardiovascular equipment.
“I love it,” Oregon State volleyball player Lexie Rathgeber said. “It’s bigger and we can work out more efficiently.”
Fellow volleyball player, Bree Knitter added: “I love it. It makes me want to be there more. It’s added incentive.”
“It’s tight,” sophomore receiver Darrell Catchings told osubeavers.com. “I was amazed when I walked in for the first time.”
Catchings was working on squats Tuesday afternoon with help from Brendon Ziegler of the strength and conditioning staff.
“Big Chest Darrell,” Ziegler said.
“The more [the athletes] enjoy coming in, the easier our job is,” Miller said.
The strength and conditioning staff’s job consists of teaching, evaluating and coaching. In that order, says Miller.
Teaching is the key, and the staff is very thorough with instructions and guidance.
Miller says the better the staff does during the year, the more comfortable student-athletes are when it comes time to show up in the weight room over the summer.
The comfort level seemed a bit higher with the addition of new facilities and the friendly environment the staff provides.
“Everyone enjoys coming in here,” Miller said.
“A lot of other facilities have mirrors up and other things on the walls,” Ziegler, who works mainly with men’s and women’s golf, men’s basketball and softball, said. “But this facility was built with our style in mind. You can throw a medicine ball against the wall, put your feet up. The space is very usable.”
The “style” is Olympic – cling, jerk and snatch – and the strength and conditioning staff feel like they snatched a great facility. Enough to make any weightlifting enthusiast a little emotional.
“The previous weight room in the Valley Football Center had limits,” Miller said. “This weight room is virtually limitless.”
The SPC, like its predecessor, is home to every athlete on campus. Only now, more than one team can work out at a time. The 22 platforms are nearly triple the number previously available at Valley.
In years past, there would be times when more than one team was scheduled to work out. That would force the strength and conditioning staff to maneuver workouts around the available space.
Not anymore.
“Now when more than one team is scheduled to work out, we don’t have to change workouts,” Miller said. “We have enough room for each team.”
The second floor of the SPC also includes a wrestling practice facility for the now nationally recognized program.
“It’s phenomenal,” head wrestling coach Jim Zalesky told osubeavers.com. “The facility provides everything we need to grow as a program. We are close to the weight room and we have ample mat space for practice. The Sports Performance Center is a big addition to our program.”
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