April 20, 2010
By Kate Wiedie, Penn State Athletic Communications Student Assistant
New Nittany Lion Softball Park Facility Page
For any student-athlete juggling school and sports, time is of the essence. For Penn State softball players, this is especially true.
Nittany Lion softball players get ready in their team locker room in the Intramural Building on Curtin Road, and then walk down to Nittany Lion Field for practice and games. For meetings at their coaches' offices, players head over to the Bryce Jordan Center. During the preseason, which Mother Nature is still a factor, the team practices indoors at the Multi-Sport Complex off of University Drive.
Beginning next season, the team will not have to travel all over campus. Instead, they will be able to utilize all aspects of their program in one, state-of-the-art facility.
Last month, the Penn State Board of Trustees approved the construction of a new stadium. The 10.2 million dollar facility will be built on the current site of Nittany Lion Field and will be in the upper tier of collegiate softball facilities.
"I think that whenever you are looking at a student-athlete, you need to think about their time efficiency," said Mark Bodenschatz, Associate Athletic Director for Facilities and Operations. "Their main job is to get an education and I think the new facility will provide them with more time management. They're not running all over the place to get from one thing to the other, it's all already there."
The new stadium will encompass team locker rooms, coaches' offices, interior batting cages, clubhouses, a training room and a media center. The facility will also be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified.
"I think the fact that it finally gives a consolidated home to the softball program is the biggest thing," Bodenschatz explained. "It's where they are going to practice and play, so having all of that, training facilities and the whole nine yards in one place, it won't be fragmented like it is right now."
Head coach Robin Petrini agrees that the all-in-one facility will open several doors for her team. "Everything is in-house for us. That is going to be fantastic, we never have to leave the building," she said.
The stadium not only consolidates things for the team, it also gives them more opportunities for training during the off-season.
"The fact that for our pitchers, when we do individual workouts, we can do them inside our own facility. That is huge," explained Robin Petrini. "The [indoor] batting cage facility is going to have dirt for our pitchers to continue to workout and for our catchers.
"That's big because when you come out of practicing indoors to go play outdoors, there is no longer rubber in the ground. They get into some bad habits from pitching off of Astroturf. Now, they'll be able to pitch off a rubber set in the dirt."
The team will also obtain several intangibles off the field as a result of the new facility. As Bodenschatz explained, other Penn State teams that have consolidated their program into one facility saw immediate benefits.
Head coach Robin Petrini |
"It helps to integrate coaches with the team," he pointed out. "The coaches that have been moved out of the Bryce Jordan Center to the venues where their teams practice or locker have really expressed how much of a difference that has made. Just provided that opportunity for interaction and synergy, they don't have to go to the Bryce Jordan Center to see coach, they can go right down the hall. It's really important."
When they move into their new home next season, the Nittany Lions will be a leader in softball facilities both in the Big Ten and nationally.
"As the Michigan State coach said the other day when we played them, `you're going from worst to first [in the conference in terms of facilities],' explained Petrini. "I think we are going to be one of the best, if not the best, in the Big Ten and we're going to be one of the best in the country."
Petrini has guided Penn State to the NCAA Tournament seven times during her tenure. All of those postseason runs took place on the road, because the current Nittany Lion Field can only accommodate 300 fans, a number lower than the minimum for hosting in the NCAA Tournament. The new facility will seat 1,084 spectators, enabling Penn State to host postseason play for the first time in Petrini's tenure.
"That was one of the main reasons why we built it, so we could host NCAAs," Petrini said. "If you look out on our outfield fence, we've been to NCAAs seven times. We've been shipping out every time. So this will now afford us the opportunity to host."
All these exciting new opportunities would not have been possible without the generosity of several donors, including E. Lee and William Beard who gave $500,000. The field at the 10.2 million dollar stadium will be called Beard Field.
"[The Beards] have wanted to do something for the program," Petrini said. "They had talked for a couple years about doing something, but the fact they stepped up to do the field naming opportunity is incredible."
As a perennial contender, the Penn State softball team is excited to shine in a facility that matches the caliber of its program. Next year will only be the first season of many to come in the new stadium.
"We don't have the opportunity to do this very often, the facility is going to last at least 20 years," Bodenschatz said. "We need it to stay relevant and not become obsolete and I think we're building a facility that is going to be able to do that.
"This is going to consolidate them and help the efficiency of the program. I just think it is going to take them to the next level."