{"id":397413,"date":"2026-09-12T00:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/397413\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T00:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:12:12","slug":"opinion-usfs-recreation-and-wellness-center-is-on-the-right-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/397413\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: USF\u2019s Recreation and Wellness Center is on the right track"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>The USF Recreation and Wellness Center has made progress in rectifying the issues that plagued it before. ORACLE PHOTO \/ AYRON ESPINO-NARDI<\/p>\n

When I walked into the Recreation and Wellness Center <\/a>on the first Monday of the semester, I immediately noticed a difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The crowding that I was cursed with last semester was largely gone, and there were new machines in the REC.<\/p>\n

Alfred Gentellini, the director of Campus Recreation and Wellness, said the REC has undergone several improvements, including the addition of 10 Woodway treadmills in Spring 2026. Six were installed in the REC and four in the FIT, at a total cost of $150,000.<\/p>\n

The REC also received approximately $50,000 worth of functional strength-training equipment in August.<\/p>\n

Seeing these changes made me realize that USF\u2019s REC Center was heading in a different direction this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been living on USF Tampa\u2019s campus for more than a year, and throughout my time, the REC has been a consistent part of my routine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for much of my time there has also meant dealing with a serious problem\u2014 overcrowding, an issue I wrote about last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: OPINION: USF\u2019s Recreation and Wellness Center needs more machines<\/a><\/p>\n

The improvements, however, don\u2019t completely solve the REC\u2019s overcrowding problem. Turning the facility itself into a maze of machines isn\u2019t necessarily the answer.<\/p>\n

Instead, USF could invest more in alternative recreational spaces, such as the FIT<\/a>, and do more to promote them to students as an equally viable option for working out.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean the REC shouldn\u2019t stop improving. Gentellini said the facility plans to invest another $505,000 in upgrades in the near future.<\/p>\n

It includes $250,000 in new flooring for the weight-training and cardio areas, $155,000 in new day-use lockers for the fitness floor and $100,000 in repairs to the wood flooring in one of the fitness rooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those investments matter, especially considering how difficult it could be to find an available machine during peak hours.<\/p>\n

The worst offender was the cable fly machine, of which there was notoriously only one in the REC center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, however, a second one has been added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While not entirely fixing all issues, the new additions of multiple new cable machines, places to do pull-ups and dips, as well as the second cable fly machine have made it much easier to complete my workouts and navigate the gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This also shows that USF will listen to student feedback and do as much as they can for the student body.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You should definitely express any problems you have with USF Campus, even if you think they seem like small-scale issues, because they may get fixed.<\/p>\n

Related: USF Esports grows from online to national stage through campus engagement<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second-year economics major Maximiliano Di Battista said that he\u2019s also seen improvements when it comes to the REC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think the REC has had a massive improvement in terms of machine availability and crowding,\u201d Battista said. \u201cEspecially ever since the second chest fly machine was added.\u201d<\/p>\n

Battista also compared it directly to last year\u2019s crowding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen machines and sections of the Rec that last year seemed completely unreachable, unless you made a line, become incredibly accessible, the main example being the bench presses,\u201d said Battista.<\/p>\n

However, not everybody has had their experience in the REC center benefit from the addition of new machines.<\/p>\n

Second-year economics major Yong Tao Wong said he\u2019s felt almost no difference from this year to last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCrowding and machine availability felt the same as last year,\u201d Wong said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even in other parts of the REC center, aside from the lifting and cardio floors, Wong said there has been a congestion issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBadminton is also facing a crowding issue,\u201d Wong said. \u201cThe rock climbing wall runs out of chalk, especially over weekends. More refills would be a great improvement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For much of my time at the REC, it wasn\u2019t unusual to see students waiting for equipment or working around others who were already using it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Improving the facility is a step in the right direction, but making better use of the various spaces USF already has could help ensure those improvements don\u2019t simply attract even more people to the same crowded building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As someone who has spent more than a year working out there, I\u2019ve seen firsthand how frustrating the overcrowding could be. That is why I think it is encouraging to see USF investing in the facility rather than simply accepting its problems as inevitable.<\/p>\n

The REC still has room to grow, but for the first time in a while, I\u2019m looking forward to seeing what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The USF Recreation and Wellness Center has made progress in rectifying the issues that plagued it before. ORACLE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-397413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}