Garden City Community College - Broncbuster Yearbook (Garden City, KS)

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SPORTS Inf Williams' provide an amazing gift O New fHC1l1t nears completion Dugouts of major league caliber were only the beginn- ing. The baseball team, who normally played their games 'at Clint Lightner field, soon had a new field of their own under construction. The site was just north of the gymnasium and had special meaning for Garry and Janet Williams of Kokomo, Ind. Their son, Lewie, played for GCCC in the early 1980s. The Williams' contributed S220,000 to initiate the project, along with a challenge to the community to finance the re- mainder of the cost for the new field. Williams referred to the link between athletics and academics when he spoke before the Board of Trustees on Sept. 11. Exciting, talented teachers are wanting to come to the university because of the fine facilities, he said. His appearance before the board was to appeal for an ad- ditional S150,000 commitment to the project. His appeal was successful. Preliminary discussion of the project had produced pro- posed cuts which concerned the Williams'. They were com- mitted to excellence, and their initial contribution was made to construct the finest place to play baseball in the area. They felt some of the propos- ed cuts would conflict with this purpose, therefore pro- moting the appeal. Coach Slobko felt that hav- ing their own facility would be beneficial for the team. Because of the central loca- tion of Garden City, top teams will pass through consistently, Step by step-The grandstand area of the baseball facility nears completion. And there was light-One of several light poles waits to be hoisted in to place beside the grandstand. and now we will have the facilities with which to accom- modate them, he said. Having these facilities will undoubtedly give a tremen- dous boost to recruiting top talent to play baseball here at GCCC, Slobko added. The facilities included a grandstand that had a roof as well as a seating capacity of approximately 400 people. The new facility was original- ly planned to have an artificial turf playing field. However, after discussing the plans with the Williams', Coach Slobko explained that due to costs involved with ar- tificial turf, as well as the fact that baseball was designed to be played on natural turf, the plan was revised. It was then changed to have a natural grass turf with cut-outs. Coach Slobko summed it up when he said the new facilities are going to be super, for recruiting, playing spectatingf' Z? Z 20 Baseball!Sports fa 2 is Z 2 ? fb 0- K- E

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I Preparing the field-Sprinklers ready the field for the planting of the natural grass turf. Early stages-Cranes are brought in to take care of some of the heavy work that goes into building a large scale baseball facility. 4 ,, SportsfBaseball 21