As soon as the votes were tallied for the increase in the student activity fee in April, UT Martin director of intercollegiate athletics, Phil Dane, began visualizing his field of dreams. He pictured lighting and permanent bleachers for the baseball and softball fields. He imagined soccer fields with lights, and a new free-standing facility at the end of Pat Head Summit Drive that would include locker rooms and offices for the baseball and softball teams, as well as public restrooms and a concession stand.
Dane’s dreams were even bigger. Thanks to a separate gift of roughly $110,000 from Ms. Kathleen Elam, football’s Hardy M. Graham Stadium received new seating and brick under-pinning before the first home game last fall. In addition, gifts from several Skyhawk Club donors will cover a significant portion of the $750,000 cost for the installation of a new artificial turf surface on H.K. Grantham Field. The artificial turf purchasing process has begun, and the project is scheduled to be complete by Aug. 1, 2008.
Additional gifts from Ms. Elam of $30,000 will pay for improvements to the men’s basketball locker room, renovations to UT Martin’s Hall of Fame display in the Elam Center and the men’s and women’s basketball hospitality room. Gift proposals have also been submitted for new scoreboards for the baseball and softball fields.
The increase in the student activity fee is now turning Dane’s other ideas into done-deals, too. The fee increase will fund lighting projects for baseball, softball and soccer. The lighting for all three fields will cost approximately $500,000 and must get state legislative approval as well as approval from the State Building Commission (SBC). Dane said the next opportunity for new construction projects to be approved will be this summer, with construction beginning during the 2008-09 academic year.
“After the SBC has approved the projects, a designer must be appointed. It’s conceivable that all the lighting projects could be bid and installed by spring 2009,” Dane said.
The fee increase will also pay for a new building near the baseball and softball fields that will contain locker rooms and offices for the two teams. Baseball and softball locker rooms and offices are currently located in the Skyhawk Fieldhouse, approximately one-quarter of a mile from the playing fields. The new structure will also have space for a concession stand and public restrooms to serve both fields.
The timeframe and approvals for the new building are the same as for the lighting. “I would not expect the building to be occupied before fall 2009,” Dane said.
Softball and baseball bleachers will also be replaced with new permanent seating with money from the activity fee increase. Softball’s seating is expected to cost about $75,000, while bleachers for baseball are expected to cost about $90,000. Dane said he wants to do both seating projects at the same time because he can get a better price, and it would also be more gender equitable. Dane, who has been the athletics director for the past eight years, said it’s possible that the new permanent bleachers for softball and baseball could be completed before the end of the current fiscal year in June.
“We could not make these improvements without the support of our student body and our faithful Skyhawk Club members. I realize many of the students who voted for the fee increase will be gone when all these improvements are complete. However, we are confident these improvements will result in greater success on the field, which will make them prouder alumni.”
In addition to facility improvements, the athletic department’s operating budget has increased by more than $150,000 across the various sports. Four new full-time positions have also been added – assistant baseball coach, assistant softball coach, assistant rodeo coach and assistant athletic communications director. Assistant coaches for soccer and volleyball will be added later in the current academic year.
Head softball coach Donley Canary said that adding a full-time assistant coach has been a great boost to his program.
“The biggest thing is it allows us to have continuity in the program,” said Canary. “I’ve been very blessed with our graduate assistants. I’ve had some quality kids, but we were changing every two years.”
He added, “Some of the girls on our team have had three pitching coaches. That’s just not good for a program.”
Canary also said the facility upgrades will help him in recruiting. “Right now our program and the facilities we have are behind the rest of the (Ohio Valley) Conference.”
Bubba Cates, the head baseball coach agrees. “The new upgrades would make us similar to schools we compete against now.”
If you build it, they will play – with pride.
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