Thursday, September 25, 2014

Field of Dreams, Or Dreams of a Field?


By Ej Merlo

Kansas City, MO- When it comes to recruiting student athletes, what a school has to offer seems to be make or break a decision for most. Scholarship amount, coaching staff, living quarters, and sports facilities are the things that most recruits are interested in.
KCKCC Coach Jason Browar
Coach Browar from KCKCC was asked if he thought having a new baseball facility and clubhouse had helped him and the school in the recruiting process. He said “absolutely, more kids want to be here with the facilities we have compared to other schools.”
KCKCC Baseball Clubhouse


KCKCC Baseball Field
      
A four year university not having its own baseball field and practice facilities on campus would leave most with raised eyebrows. It’s not to say that the baseball team doesn’t have a field at Avila University…they just don’t have a field of their own. During football season, baseball cannot practice on “the baseball field” due to the shared complex that multiple sports utilize. Baseball, softball, and both men and women’s soccer, all share a “community field”. What this amounts to is that the baseball players are forced to commute day in and day out to Belton High School a public school twenty minutes from the Avila campus for practice. This occurs the whole fall semester and can take its toll on the players and their wallets.   The cost of gas is not figured in a scholarship and must come from the player himself. 
What if the student athlete is a full time student and doesn’t have a job or have enough money to pay for the gas it takes to commute, twice a day, every day. This goes without mentioning the baseball players who don’t live on campus and already are spending a fortune driving to and from school every day. Now they are responsible for paying out of their own pockets for an added 30-40 min drive to and from practice. When they could just get out of class and already be on campus and go to practice if they were to have their own practice field on campus!
When an anonymous baseball player from Avila University was asked what is the worst part of not having a practice field on campus? He answered with, “trying to hurry to my car, get dressed, and worrying if I had to take more time out to stop and get gas before I made the drive to Belton High School” he also said, “at my previous college it was very nice to have a locker room to change in, and I could be on the field within 5 minutes of notice regardless of where I was on campus.”

What about those students who have classes that don’t get out until after 3:15 and practice starts at 3!? They cannot simply run to the field on campus and because they must leave campus and make the trek to the facility in Belton, Missouri, they miss out on valuable practice time. Missing out on this much practice time throughout the week adds up. This makes the program and the player take a hit when it comes to the success that could be obtained by having practice on campus and spending the time wasted commuting practicing baseball.
How does one expect to build a championship winning program when that program doesn’t even have a place to call its own? Community Colleges have their own baseball facilities that are not shared with other sports, why is it that a four year university shouldn’t? 
Avila University's Multi-Sport Complex


We all realize that renovating and planning for a stadium or field is not an easy task, nor an inexpensive one, but at the university level, if they are going to offer a sport to students then they should be able to provide that student with the ability to practice, and play to the best of their abilities without the burden or cost some athletes at Avila have to endure.

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