Kenyon student-athletes returning to Gambier for the 2018-19 academic year will find two new practice fields, new synthetic turf at the baseball field and improvements to Kenyon Athletic Center (KAC) facilities.
Last season, the Lords baseball team secured the program’s first appearance in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) tournament since 2012. The team will be able to log more practice time this fall because McCloskey Field will be better suited to handle Ohio’s variable weather. By September the field will have:
In the past, Ohio weather has played havoc with the baseball team’s schedule. The 2018 season saw three days of snowfall in the third week of April, and every non-conference game in Ohio on the Lords’ schedule was cancelled. Playing on a synthetic turf field will reduce game cancellations and will save countless hours in maintenance.
“The student-athletes want to play, and we must do everything in our power to give them those opportunities,” said Matt Burdette, Kenyon’s head baseball coach. “They deserve it, and this project will ensure it.”
More than 200,000 square feet of practice space has also been created this summer for other Kenyon sports teams, including the highly successful men’s and women’s soccer programs. The new fields use the same sod as many pro sports fields and now match Mavec Field, which was resurfaced last year. Mavec also has a new parking lot, to reduce parking on nearby grass.
Internet speeds have been upgraded in the press boxes at McCloskey, Mavec and McBride fields to allow for faster delivery of live statistics and the ability to livestream games in high-definition video.
Inside the KAC, improvements include: