The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/152358
Rademacher, associate athletic director, facilities and operations, workers are making considerable progress on the facility throughout the summer months. "It's going along great," Rademacher said. "The team out there is working hard. We expect it will be completed in March of next year, and we'll be ready to dedicate it during the spring football game weekend. We'll have a big celebration, with former players and people who contributed to the project. "It's transformational. It's really going to tie, appearance-wise, into the buildings on the campus around it — Glick Fieldhouse on the south and Yost on the north. We needed to tie it in and make it look like it belonged there. We've done that. The brick and mortar going up now, it's even better than it looked in the picture." The new softball building replaces the present one adjacent to Alumni Field. The center features a threestory, 10,200-square-foot building providing on-site coaches' offices, something not available to head coach Carol Hutchins and her staff before. It will also feature new locker rooms, offices for support staff, a team meeting room, and space for athletic medicine and fitness concerns. The new space will also feature a Hall of Fame section, as well as a roof terrace on the third floor that allows views of Alumni Field and the Wilpon Complex (softball and baseball) as a whole. "It's a really quick project," Rademacher said. "We started right after the Women's College World Series. They got back, moved out and we put the shovel in the ground right then. It will be done by the end of this year, and they'll be moving in the latter part of December." By the time Hutchins' crew finishes its annual Southern and Western treks and settles back at Alumni Field for the Big Ten season, the Wolverines will have experienced their already good facilities taking a major step up. "The plan was to get it done in the summer and fall, and they'll be inconvenienced a little bit with having their locker room moved," Rademacher said. "We're also replacing the turf with artificial turf on both baseball and softball, so our teams are going to be a little out of sorts this fall with fall practice season." The natural turf in both venues received loving care over the years, but Rademacher noted what a difference the installation of AstroTurf will make for programs at the mercy of Northern spring weather. "It comes down to player development," he said. "It's going to allow us to get out there earlier on the field to practice. Too often, we will play our first game for both baseball and softball, and we will not have been outside. We haven't seen any fly balls and practiced outside. "By putting in the artificial turf, when you get those 50-, 60-degree days, we can get on the field and practice. You can plow snow off it, and do the sorts of things you can't do on a grass field. We think it's going to be advantageous for both programs, helping them compete with the Southern schools."