By the time the second semester rolls around for the University of Charleston, its athletic programs should be settled into their new home in the Wehrle Innovation Center.
UC athletic director Bren Stevens said the dedication ceremonies for the facility - which will house athletic offices and be the home court for the Golden Eagles basketball and volleyball teams - will be held Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3. That date was pushed back from an Oct. 7 ceremony that was projected earlier this year.
"We knew we'd be a little bit behind, as probably with most building projects," Stevens said. "We're excited though."
Inclement weather played a part in the delay, as did the complications from removing asbestos from the site.
The plan is for UC's teams to play their games at the Wehrle Center beginning in the second semester. As of now, first-semester home games will be played at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex, though Stevens said she hoped to flip around a couple of home and away games to allow those home games to happen in the new arena.
Last season, Charleston played some home basketball games at the Charleston Civic Center, but as of Wednesday, Stevens hadn't discussed a return to the building this season.
Now that the $15.5 million project is even further along, Stevens said she's even more excited every time she tours the facility. The old athletic facility, the Eddie King Gym, was the oldest on campus. The Wehrle Center will offer amenities the old gym couldn't, such as two video boards and some chair-back seating.
"We'll have locker rooms where our coaches won't have to share," she said. "They'll have their own locker rooms. We never had dressing rooms for our officials. We had them dressing in offices. It will add a lot to what we're able to do for a home event. It's a definitely a step up."
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When Mountain East Conference commissioner Reid Amos described how close the race was for the 2016 Mountain East Conference Commissioner's Cup, he had to use decimal places he never had to use before.
Once the conference finished with its formula to decide the winner, UC finished first with an all-sports rating of .718563. Runner-up Wheeling Jesuit finished with a rating of .718543.
"I'm very confident this is the closest Commissioner's Cup competition not only in the past, but the future history of the Mountain East," he said. "It can also be said that Charleston claims the Commissioner's Cup in a year that could be among the best, if not the best that the Mountain East Conference may ever have."
Amos doesn't plan on the 2015-16 season being the MEC's apex, but on top of UC's national semifinal berth in the NCAA Division II men's soccer tournament and College World Series berth in softball, Wheeling Jesuit won a national volleyball title and Shepherd reached the national football title game.
"You look at the success we had this year as a conference, and consider there are 24 Division II conferences, years like this don't necessarily come along very often, but they do come along more often for the stronger conferences in Division II, and that's what we're making every effort to become."
The MEC, after just three seasons of existence, is garnering national attention. It again will be part of the Division II Football Showcase. Last season, UC beat Concord in a game broadcast on ESPN3. This season, Shepherd hosts Glenville State on Saturday, Oct. 8, in a game to be broadcast on the American Sports Network.
"It's tremendous," Amos said. "When teams start having national success, they become more of a known brand. So there is more interest in those institutions being part of a television package."
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.