Allen Community College board of trustees approved a $31,000 contribution April 18 to a $93,000 baseball field renovation project overseen by head baseball coach, Clint Stoy.
Renovations to the facility will include building a 40-by- 80-foot covered and turfed hitting pavilion with an estimated price tag of $37,000, and approximately $56,000 for replacing the field’s chain link side fences with synthetic wood fencing. Stoy said an additional $31,000 toward the project has been raised over the last three years through various high school camp fundraisers.
The project still lacks approximately $30,000 in funding, Stoy said. He is working with alumni to see how this can be raised.
Stoy said the renovations, which he hopes to see completed by early August, are an essential part of the college’s growth.
“We recruit kids here, college athletes, with the idea of player development. We don’t have cages to hit in that are outside,” something that most other colleges have, he said.
The pavilion will also allow the college to host more kids’ camps during the summer.
As head coach at ACC, Stoy has strived to get more community involvement with the college’s ball program.
More than 400 high school students have attended showcases since Stoy was hired in 2014. The college has hosted eight tournaments and more than 60 students have attended hitting camps. Maximizing recruiting efforts and increasing enrollment is equally beneficial to the Allen County community at large, Stoy said.
“I think this will be just one other step that our administration is making to make the college nicer,” he said.
Stoy said he hopes that a hitting cage and fences are just the first step to upgrading the baseball facility. Eventually he would like to see a concession stand and a press box added so that the school can host more tournaments, which in turn, will bring more visitors to the Iola area.
The college’s president, John Masterson, presented Stoy with a personal check forl $1,000 at the board meeting.
Stoy said he was pleasantly surprised by Masterson’s gesture.
“That is just the kind of person he is,” Stoy said.
