Willett Hall has been a staple on Longwood University’s campus since 1980, and it has been the home to Kinesiology, Therapeutic Recreation, and other Health related majors along with their respected students. However, to most Longwood students who are not a part of any of these majors, Willett Hall is the home of Lancer Basketball. Although Willett Hall has the charm of a smaller university, the basketball program has grown immensely, and Longwood has outgrown the quaint gym.
According to Griff Aldrich, head men’s basketball coach at Longwood University, the “Big South Conference has said that basketball is a priority for its member institutions,” encouraging all colleges a part of their conference to work toward constructing a new arena if they do not already have one. Aldrich said The Big South Conference Championship win in 2022 was definitely a “big part,” or catalyst in the construction of the new Joan Perry Brock Center. Ultimately, however, it had all been “made possible by a very tremendous gift,” said Justin Pope, Vice President and chief of staff at Longwood University. Joan Perry Brock and her late husband are both alumnas of Longwood University who generously donated their money to elevate the university’s basketball program.
The hope is that this new arena will enrich not only Longwood, but also the Farmville community as a whole. “I think it is going to be a resource not just for the campus community, but for the overarching community as well,” said Tim Hall, director of athletics at Longwood University. Pope said the Joan Perry Brock Center is “envisioned as a community resource.” Pope continued, “the hope is that concerts, lectures, university events, we will have convocation there in the fall, we are talking about incorporating The G.A.M.E., or the athletic march, over there.”
However, if the university decides to use the arena for other events, the basketball teams will be left unable to practice for potentially long stretches of time, said Aldrich. The Willett Hall basketball gym will become a practice gym for both the men’s and women’s teams, said Aldrich and Hall. According to Hall, the facility will still remain the home to the aforementioned health-related majors, as well as home to the basketball performance center.
Standing at around 3,000 seats and in the heart of campus, the Joan Perry Brock Center has been described as “transformational” by Hall, and Aldrich said he thinks it will “just be a tremendous experience.” Hall said the way the arena was designed, the crowd, and especially the students, are meant to be very close to the court. It was designed this way to give a “strong home court advantage for the men’s and women’s teams,” said Hall. Hall hopes this new arena will be more interactive from a fan’s standpoint, making the in-game experience even stronger than ever. Pope said that many other schools tend to build arenas that cannot be filled by the student body. With the Joan Perry Brock Center, however, the fan experience is elevated.
“I really think it will be among the very best places to watch basketball in Virginia and the Big South.” Although not the biggest in the Big South Conference, Pope hopes that Joan Perry Brock Center will be the best setting possible to enjoy basketball.
Undoubtedly, Hall believes this new facility will significantly help with recruiting student athletes and drawing prospective students into Longwood. Hall said that when searching for a college, students “want to go to a place that they feel has nice and modern facilities for housing, has nice and modern facilities for their academic areas of study, has nice and modern facilities for food service and recreation.” Pope said this center is “a way to get them on campus to see the rest of it too” Pope also added that prospective students and athletes like to see that a college is “showing a commitment to the program,” and with the Joan Perry Brock Center, Longwood is doing just that.
The “Wygal replacement building,” the new music building, is also under construction next to the Joan Perry Brock Center. “When I daydream, I think of 5 to 10 years down the line, that whole side of campus, which is not that attractive coming down Main Street now, but it will be a beautiful open place with two new buildings and a welcoming entrance,” said Pope. He hopes to see one day a “regular stream of basketball and non-basketball events in those two buildings that people are coming for.”
According to Hall, who has walked through the unfinished arena several times, said substantial completion is set to happen sometime in May or June, with the grand opening on Aug. 25, 2023. Breaking in the new facility, the first men’s home basketball game will take place Nov. 11, 2023. “It is elegant,” said Hall, “it does not look like an arena where a professional sports team plays, it is not cavernous and antiseptic, it really has that Longwood, Jeffersonian feel to it.”
The hope is that the Joan Perry Brock Center will be just what the Longwood basketball program needs to continue being successful in their conference. Substantial completion is set to begin as the 2023 Longwood senior week begins, and Pope said he hopes to get some graduating seniors inside the arena.
Only time will tell if the Joan Perry Brock Center is truly going to be a big success, however the hope is that Lancer pride will be more present on campus than ever.
