By Dalton Dinkel, Guest Writer
Newman’s coaches and student athletes often complain about the school’s aging sports facilities.
The field complex has no running water, restrooms or stadium seating. Different sports are often fighting for time in a single gym. Fences are warped, outdoor fields are bald in spots, and some teams have to walk across campus to get to their locker rooms.
But all that will change in the next four to six years, said Athletic Director Joanna Pryor.
The school is about to launch a capital campaign with the goal of raising at least $20 million to build a state-of-the-art athletic facility.
The facility was a longtime goal of former Athletic Director Vic Trilli, who retired last year.
“This has been in the back of Vic’s and my mind for a while. Right now we are in a development stage, which means we’ve been doing research of other MIAA schools and have gotten prints of their facilities to somewhat match what we are wanting to do,“ Pryor said.
The project will include a new indoor facility with a turfed area for every sport to train on, batting cages for softball and baseball, a new weight room, training room and locker rooms for all sports. It will also include new outdoor facilities plus showers for visiting teams to use.
“We would like to give our teams the proper facilities for their respective sports,” she said. “For baseball and softball, we would love to have stadium seating and a turf field. We would also love to give men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and wrestling more stadium seating and even an auxiliary gym.”
Head baseball coach Drew Maus says that the new facilities could help make Newman a more attractive option for recruits.
“One thing that holds Newman back are the facilities,” he said. “Being at a private school, it is expensive enough and when you come on a visit and you simply don’t see good sports facilities, you somewhat start to think, ‘Hey where is my money going?’”
PHOTO: Courtney Klaus, Editor-In-Chief.
