Late last week, Louisiana Tech held a press conference to reveal architectural plans for a new softball stadium. The Lady Techsters’ previous field was one of several university facilities that were decimated by a tornado in the spring.
The baseball, softball, and soccer facilities on Louisiana Tech’s campus received extensive damage from the tornado, including to such extents that the Lady Techsters’ softball squad had to play their last home series of the season at the home field of Interstate 20 neighbor Louisiana-Monroe.
Thursday’s announcement included architectural renderings for construction on each of the facilities, as well as detailed analysis of those plans. Funding for the projects will come from a combination of state-appropriated funding and insurance, as well as private donations, according to athletic director Tommy McClelland.
Lady Techsters senior catcher Addison Roark said she was “giddy and excited” to see the plans for the new softball stadium, which will include seating for a capacity crowd of more than 1,000. “Even though I don’t personally get to experience this, it’s so awesome for the program… a program that really deserves this kind of facility.”
As she will not get to play in the new stadium as a student-athlete – construction is expected to be completed only in time for the 2021 season – Roark called seeing the plans for the new stadium “a little bittersweet.”
“We’ve known, coming into this, that it was going to be something really great,” she said. “Elation is a big factor, though. I’m excited for the girls that I’ve played with, and for the future of this program, and that’s what really matters; being able to push this program to an even higher level and a higher standard to get to.”
The architectural plans included a 2-story facility that is to be situated directly between the softball and soccer facilities, and will include everything from locker rooms to coaches’ offices to an indoor practice facility. Coaches will look down from second-story offices onto their respective team’s field of play.
“I really like the new location,” Roark said after learning that the softball complex will be relocated to a position near Louisiana Tech’s football stadium. “I like that, as soon as you pull onto Tech’s campus, you see it. Everybody who is going to a football game gets to see it. We’re showing off our ‘baby’, our ‘pride’, that kind of thing. It’s pretty awesome.”
“The new hitting facility is pretty awesome too,” she added. “To go from having one batting cage and three nets outside that we’d hit into, with a shed to store our stuff in, to having this indoor facility is really great.”
Construction on the new facility is expected to begin after January 1st, but the tornado-stricken former softball complex is already nothing more than a vacant lot, with demolition having already taken place. Only concrete slabs show basic geography of where the field stood previously. The Lady Techsters will play the 2020 season at a field provided by the city of Ruston, minutes away from the Louisiana Tech campus.
McClelland emphasized during his press conference that the renderings and plans for the new facilities were drawn up with a specific focus on women’s sports in mind. That focus was something that Roark said she saw as a positive thing.
“It tells me that our university cares,” she said. “It’s becoming something that’s recognized throughout the country, that we [female athletes]are well-defined, well-represented, and well-supported athletes… and we are reaching that new standard of being a top-notch female athletics team here, in both softball and soccer.”
Renderings provided by LA Tech Athletics
