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James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center

The physical manifestation of Shenandoah Athletics’ “22 sports, one team.” The culmination of a 25-year-old dream.

The Wilkins Athletics & Events Center

The James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center is the largest space in 70 miles! The 77,000-square-foot facility serves the entire university community and the local community. Our mission for this facility is to serve the unmet needs of our community. We’re fulfilling that dream by hosting all of the major Apple Blossom events, a COVID vaccination center, and more. This space while hosting major lectures, concerts, sit-down dinners for a thousand people, indoor graduations for local high schools or community colleges, festivals, and more.

Come Experience A New Age of Hornet Athletics

The indoor athletic facility serves the university’s 22 athletics teams. It is the home of Shenandoah’s basketball, volleyball, and track and field teams. Shenandoah is now one of only two schools in the ODAC with NCAA-certified indoor track and field facilities. The facility includes batting/throwing cages for baseball and softball, hitting cages for SU’s golf teams, and it is an indoor practice/conditioning space for outdoor sports during poor weather.

Experience our first year in the WAEC

Wilkins Athletics & Events Center News

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Vaccinating Virginians

Shenandoah University’s James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center served as the COVID-19 mass-vaccination site in the Winchester/Frederick County area in collaboration with Valley Health and the Lord Fairfax Health District.
Tracy FitzsimmonsOur faculty, staff and health professions students are honored to be a part of the response to this community health crisis through our longstanding partnership with Valley Health and the Lord Fairfax Health District. We all have a role in advancing the health of our most vulnerable community members, our neighbors, and our families and we are proud to serve the community in this essential role.” Tracy Fitzsimmons | President of Shenandoah University

About the Facility

The Athletics & Events Center Includes:

  • A 200-­meter, six­-lane competition track with eight sprint lanes and throwing, sand pit and pole vaulting areas
  • A wooden basketball and volleyball playing surface
  • Inclement weather practice space for all teams
  • A curtain system to accommodate multiple practices simultaneously
  • A university and community events location with area for a stage and seating capacity for 5,000 people
  • Home and away locker room facilities, concession stand and satellite athletic training area
  • Parking garage beside the facility

More Athletics Projects at Shenandoah:

Through a landmark agreement with the City of Winchester, Shenandoah is renovating four fields in Jim Barnett park, including the two fields that have served as the longtime home of Hornets’ baseball and softball.
Baseball & Softball Complex

Sprint Field at Shentel Stadium also saw a facelift in 2018 with FieldTurf XTHD-57 featuring permanent, inlaid lines for field hockey, football, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse and men's and women's soccer.

Thank you to James R. Wilkins, Jr.

Naming The James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center

One of the university’s most ardent supporters, James R. “Jimmy” Wilkins, Jr. is a member of the university’s board of trustees and was co-chair of the Athletics & Events Center Steering Committee. Wilkins’ father, James R. Wilkins, Sr., was chairman of the College Project Committee which pushed for university’s move to Winchester in 1960, and served as chairman of the board of trustees for almost 30 years.

Buzzy Is Bigger Than Ever

Bronze Statue Honors Shenandoah President Emeritus James A. “Jim” Davis And His Wife, Janet ’85

A one-ton bronze statue of the university mascot, Buzzy the Hornet, traveled the 1,466 miles from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to arrive at its permanent home at the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center (WAEC). Buzzy stands 12 feet tall! The statue took more than 900 hours to create. It is formed from more than 70 individual bronze molds.

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