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Showing posts from October, 2017

Small-College Athletic Planning, Part I: Studying the Great Predecessors

The struggle for most small-college  athletic departments comes from an  unsatisfied need for facilities to call their own.  Even my alma mater, Division-I (and FBS) Kent State University, has had to deal with the chaos of disjointed athletic facilities over the years.  Our "new" (1999) softball field was placed two miles east of the baseball field (1966); which, in its own right, is a mile south of the school's main gymnasium — headquarters for the entire athletic department. Nothing was convenient. Winter baseball practices, held in the football/track teams' fieldhouse, were nearly a town away from the classrooms and dorms.  I am told the weight room could also found there somewhere.  Anyway,  the reason for this sprawl is all too common across collegiate sports — not just for the D-I mid-majors and below. Timing is everything. An institution typically builds when it can, where it can.  Naturally, stadiums have different shelf lives and sometimes the older ones l