In just one month, the Virginia baseball program has gone from rock bottom to a promising rise.
At a press conference Monday that took place on the Virginia baseball field, the University's athletics department announced that recent anonymous donations combining for $2 million will launch a $4 million upgrade of the field.
The announcement came less than a month after two committees from the University's Board of Visitors rejected the 2020 Strategic Planning Task Force's tiering proposal. The proposal suggested cutting scholarships and severely limiting the travel and coaching budgets of fourth-tier sports, which included baseball.
"We went from the outhouse to the penthouse," said Womack, who completed his 21st season as the Cavaliers' baseball coach in 2001.
The Virginia athletics department also revealed sketches of what the transformed facility will look like. The new stadium will include a canopied grandstand with 2,000 chair-back seats, six to eight skyboxes, stadium lights, an on-site locker room and clubhouse, a digital scoreboard and a new press box and concession area. The changes will be a massive improvement from the current stadium, which has metal bleacher seats and lacks lighting and restrooms.
Virginia interim athletics director Craig Littlepage believes the new facility will give the Cavaliers a chance to become a nationally prominent baseball program that can play evening games and schedule home games against top-ranked teams that previously would have been played on the road.
"The larger purpose of this project is to establish a baseball program that can take a place as one of the top programs in the state, the region and ACC," Littlepage said. "In addition, the facility will become a community asset, offering a potential venue for high school tournaments and adult-league games."
Womack sees the project as particularly a huge step in recruiting. Virginia's recruiting got hit hard when the task force's tiering proposal came out in April, even though the proposal was ultimately rejected on June 4. According to Womack, the proposal cost baseball, as well as other sports, several recruits. The proposal came out toward the end of the spring recruiting period, and athletes considering Virginia and even those who had already signed lost interest in the Cavaliers.
The new stadium should help attract recruits back to the Cavaliers, according to Womack.
"This sends a positive message to recruits," he said. "The stadium project indicates a commitment to baseball that will encourage more high-profile players in Virginia to remain in-state."
The University plans to begin construction on the project later this summer and complete the first phase of the project by the beginning of the 2002 baseball season. The first phase will include the new seats, dugouts, lights and concession area.
The project is part of an expanded fund-raising campaign that hopes to raise an additional $2 million to complete the renovations. Also as part of the campaign, the University will offer donors naming opportunities. For example, a donor's name can be used as the stadium's name if a pledge of $1 million is made.
"Through the generosity of these anonymous donors, we are going to build a first-class facility," Womack said. "It's going to be as nice a facility as there is in the country"
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