The little league baseball players of Metro-Kiwanis Park are a sight difficult to miss from the juncture of West Market Street and John Exum Parkway, but what many passing drivers may not realize is that the ETSU softball team has been using this same little league field as their regular practice facility.
“It’s aggravating knowing that we’re a Division I softball team, and we’re playing on a field that little league teams play on,” said Stephanie Cope, outfielder and ETSU junior.
Although the field located at Metro-Kiwanis Park is regulation size for softball, Head Coach Andrea Mangrum expressed some reservations about the facility.
“When you get there and the doors are locked, and you can’t use the restrooms or the water pipes are busted, it’s little things like that take away from the experience I think a ball game should be,” she said.
However, plans are under way to break ground for a new, 500-seat, $4.9 million softball stadium in the spring of 2007, with capacity for further growth. So far, the $2.5 million necessary to begin the first of two phases of construction for the site, located across Greenwood Drive behind the Kroger shopping center, has been acquired.
“We plan to break ground in the spring on the softball stadium,” said Dave Mullins, director of ETSU athletics.
“Our coaches have said for years that we needed new facilities. Dr. Stanton charged me and a couple of our administrators back in 2003 to build new athletic facilities,” he said.
The new stadium will include press box amenities for media and game operations, TV-quality lighting, dugouts with attached storage space and easy access to bullpens, a “state-of-the-art” scoreboard, a gated entry concourse and concessions, among other things. Although the site’s location is what many might consider “off-campus,” plans are under way to add a pedestrian walkway over Greenwood Drive for easy access.
“It’s a process,” Mullins said. “It’ll take a couple of years, but you’ve got to build it one piece at a time.”
Phase two of the project, which is still awaiting funding, will include a team building with indoor hitting tunnels, equipment rooms, coaches offices, locker rooms and a training room.
Funding for the stadium has been raised by the University Advancement’s Reaching for Higher Needs-Based Capital Campaign and the ETSU Foundation because scholastic funding from the state does not cover athletic facilities.
The Reaching for Higher Needs-Based Capital Campaign began in 2004 to raise money for 29 campus programs, the softball stadium being one.
“We need this facility,” Mangrum said. “It’s not just a situation where . people want things.
“In order for our program to advance it’s a necessity, but I think our school knows that.”
Freshman player Dez Franklin is among many on the softball team growing anxious for the stadium’s completion.
“It was supposed to be ready a few years ago,” she said, citing information from her teammates. “It could be built faster; it could be done a lot quicker,” she said.
Jeremy Ross, associate vice president for university advancement, confirmed the progress of the softball stadium’s construction.
“Phase one of the softball stadium, which is $2.5 million, has been appropriated,” he said.
The ETSU women’s softball team will continue to practice at Metro-Kiwanis Park until construction of the new stadium is completed.
“I’ve been waiting to get a field since my freshman year,” Cope said. “Myself and my teammates try to make the best of it. We want to believe that our stadium will be done by my senior year.”
For more information, call Barbara Mason at 439-5285.

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