Spring Break
Athletic Dept. exploring Yager addition
Adam Hainsfurther
Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Sports
"Obviously it helps with recruiting," Montgomery said. "You see a facility like that that allows the players to work 12 months year round, no matter what the weather is outside."
The football team isn't the only team that would benefit from the indoor practice facility, as both the baseball and softball teams would be able to practice indoors year round.
"For us it gives us a chance-a lot of it is depending on how it's actually done-but it gives us a chance to do drills, and fundamentals, to hit in there, do inter-squad in there," Baseball Head Coach Dan Simonds said. "It will really help because January and February are the two biggest months to get our team ready, and there are a lot of days we're in Withrow Court, and it's limited. You can only take so many balls off of a wood floor."
The Barn would have the ability to host, not only practices, but intramural events as well. The idea behind it is not only to allow varsity athletics to hold practices that would otherwise be cancelled, but to allow both club and intramural sports to use it to host events that would also be cancelled due to inclement weather.
"We'll have netting so that golf will benefit from it, field hockey, soccer, all the sports that compete on a field and even some of the other sports that do conditioning and need a surface of some sort to run on," Bates said. "So I think it's something that will really be beneficial, not only to the athletic department, but to the student body."
Right now the Athletic Department has had the architects who designed the past Yager renovations draw up designs for The Barn. The department is in the process of deciding what facilities would exactly be built behind Yager.
Bates said that once the scope of the project has been determined, the project, which would be funded completely by private donors, would have alumni give money toward construction.
Since the project hasn't been finalized yet, Bates doesn't know exactly how much The Barn renovations would cost, however, Bates is confident the money would eventually be secured, through private donations and fund raising.
"Several alums have already told me that they are very interested in giving towards the project," Bates said. "We just need to make sure we have the scope of the project down."
The football team isn't the only team that would benefit from the indoor practice facility, as both the baseball and softball teams would be able to practice indoors year round.
"For us it gives us a chance-a lot of it is depending on how it's actually done-but it gives us a chance to do drills, and fundamentals, to hit in there, do inter-squad in there," Baseball Head Coach Dan Simonds said. "It will really help because January and February are the two biggest months to get our team ready, and there are a lot of days we're in Withrow Court, and it's limited. You can only take so many balls off of a wood floor."
The Barn would have the ability to host, not only practices, but intramural events as well. The idea behind it is not only to allow varsity athletics to hold practices that would otherwise be cancelled, but to allow both club and intramural sports to use it to host events that would also be cancelled due to inclement weather.
"We'll have netting so that golf will benefit from it, field hockey, soccer, all the sports that compete on a field and even some of the other sports that do conditioning and need a surface of some sort to run on," Bates said. "So I think it's something that will really be beneficial, not only to the athletic department, but to the student body."
Right now the Athletic Department has had the architects who designed the past Yager renovations draw up designs for The Barn. The department is in the process of deciding what facilities would exactly be built behind Yager.
Bates said that once the scope of the project has been determined, the project, which would be funded completely by private donors, would have alumni give money toward construction.
Since the project hasn't been finalized yet, Bates doesn't know exactly how much The Barn renovations would cost, however, Bates is confident the money would eventually be secured, through private donations and fund raising.
"Several alums have already told me that they are very interested in giving towards the project," Bates said. "We just need to make sure we have the scope of the project down."
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