A round of laughter could be heard as David Faugno told the assembled crowd, "Welcome to Paradise."

For months the various University of New Haven coaches and student-athletes could see the progress being made on the state of the art Peterson Performance Center from the outside. On Tuesday, the coaches got to see how things looked on the inside of the building that could take the university's athletic programs to the next level.

"Today is a special day," said Faugno, the Director of Sports Performance with the Chargers shortly after the tour came to an end.

"I think it is a symbol of where the university is heading from an athletic standpoint. This facility is second to none in Division II and up there with top Division I programs, not only in the Northeast but in the country. Designing this from the ground up, two years in the making, it is pretty special."

Faugno was consulted pretty much every step of the way in the building of the facility that has 20 squat racks, an indoor turf field and everything that is needed and even more for a groundbreaking building for Chargers athletics.

Each time a coach asked Faugno if the PPC had something, the answer was always an emphatic yes. The coaches would shake their heads in absolute delight.

The hope is that a soft opening will take place in late January or early February. When the student-athletes return to school for the spring semester, they should be able to start using the new building for workouts.

"A lot of our sports teams are competing in conference tournaments, a few teams go to the NCAAs so I think it is great that we have the facilities to back up our skills and help us get to that next level,"

New Haven field hockey forward Kat Trammel said.

New Haven has had tremendous success over the years, even without anything like the Peterson Performance Center, which is named after former New Haven football player Dave Peterson, who has been donating the money needed to get the project going.

"I knew our alums would get together and eventually build our guys a better building to function in, but a three-story building, I never envisioned something as big as that," New Haven football coach Chris Pincince said.

The football coaching staff has been welcoming recruits to campus and pretty much each of them get wide eyes when they see the newest building on North Campus.

So what are the recruits saying?

"That we have a shot to be one of the best teams in the country,"

Pincince said. "They say it, we say it for multiple sports here that we have been doing it in 50-year-old buildings and now to be able to do it and treat our kids the best that we can, it should give more of our sports a chance to win a conference championship and compete nationally."

Coming to work every day with the complex being built has given UNH's interim director of athletics Jon Mays an extra bounce in his step as he ponders what the future of Chargers athletics will look like.

"I think it is a lot of pride of what we have done as a university to get to this point and the alumni that have given to this project and the work that has gone into designing it," Mays said. "Once you start seeing the weight equipment come in and you get to come full circle and see the people who are on the front line using it, it brings out a lot of pride.

"It is a place where these people know their programs are going to get better and that is really the best thing that you can have, to have our coaches walk through and have their eyes wide open for what they can do from a recruiting aspect and sports performance standpoint, how much our student-athletes are going to benefit from it."

During homecoming festivities, some former student-athletes got a sneak peek at the facility, and they couldn't believe their eyes.

"We brought a handful of alums in here and just the contrast of what they had, the equipment and facilities that they had compared to what this building is going to provide for us, they were in awe of this space," Mays said. "When you walk through and you see the 20 squat racks and the huge sports medicine area with the hot and cold tubs and everything this place is going to have, they were in awe. They have been used to working out in a basement and just having subpar facilities so far that this is such a huge step for our programs."

For athletic department mainstays like Faugno, Pincince and men's basketball coach Ted Hotaling, they can't help but think back to how things used to be.

"I have been here 16 years and we have come a long way for sure," Faugno said. "A small weight room with no windows, air conditioning and anything of that nature and to be standing here now and be seeing this, it is surreal and to be involved in the process is vital."