Facility Facelift

By Jack Ferdon

The athletic department is due to receive $42.75 million as part of the university's current campaign to raise $350 million in the next three years. The money will go towards completing the Leavey Center, making repairs to existing facilities, building a new baseball stadium and giving athletic scholarships.

A majority of the allotment, $29.25 million, is earmarked for the Leavey project, which will include the construction of more offices and, eventually, the expansion of the Leavey Pool to water polo regulation size. The water polo teams currently play their home matches at a nearby junior college.

The new baseball stadium is budgeted for $4.25 million. The location of the facility has not been determined, but school officials have mentioned Bellomy Field as a likely spot.

But before groundbreaking can begin, the athletic department has to work in conjunction with the development office to get the money.

"We are responsible for raising the funds," said Associate Athletic Director Richard Kilwien. "We can't spend any money until we have it."

Finding donors might be difficult given the current economic morass Silicon Valley is in. As a result, no timeline for the completion of the projects has been set.

The remainder of the funds will have a more direct impact on the quality of Santa Clara's teams, as 20 new athletic scholarships will be added and Buck Shaw Stadium, as well as the soccer practice fields, will be resurfaced.

The additional scholarships will mainly help out sports other than soccer and basketball, which already have the maximum number of scholarships at their disposal.

"Women's cross country has the equivalent of 1.2 scholarships they can offer," said Kilwien. "We hope to increase that number to the NCAA limit."

The resurfacing of Buck Shaw Stadium and the adjacent practice field with a new, softer type of grass tailored for sports will enable the soccer teams to practice more often and to avoid injuries.

"We've had some problems with players getting shin splints and tight backs due to the hardness of the field that's there now," said men's soccer head coach Cameron Rast. "And we can't do too much to soften it right now because if you make it too soft, that's when players can pull their hamstrings. So a new turf would be nice."

Money will also be set aside in the department's Strategic Initiative Fund to cover unforeseen expenses that occur when teams make it to postseason tournaments, such as the championship rings given to the women's soccer team last year.

The $42.7 million is a boon to an athletic department that has achieved phenomenal success even though it operates with a very modest budget.

Last year, Santa Clara finished second in the West Coast Conference Commissioner's Cup, which ranks the schools in the league according to the overall performance of their teams.

"We're very proud to be competitive despite having a budget that is in the middle of the WCC," Kilwien said.

So how much better does the department expect its teams to get after the influx of funds?

"Our goal is to be nationally competitive in all 17 sports," Kilwien said.

This might prove to be too lofty an expectation. While some of the money can be used to increase team's recruiting budgets, allowing coaches to take more scouting trips and make more visits to recruits' homes, the greatest impediment to recruiting isn't a lack of cash. Rather, the bane of Santa Clara coaches' recruiting travails will continue to be the school's academic standards, which are the highest in the WCC.

Perhaps no coach has been more hampered by this than men's basketball head coach Dick Davey.

"We've had a lot of situations where we had commitments from guys, but then they couldn't qualify [academically]," he said.

But Davey's recruiting attempts also stand to benefit from the new Leavey Center, which rivals San Diego's Jenny Craig Pavillion as the league's top basketball venue.

"This will be the first year to see the potential dividends of the Leavey Center," Davey said. "For our conference, it's as good as it gets."

Santa Clara also leads the WCC in graduating its athletes, so don't expect the academic standards to be lowered.

Coaches will have to make due with excellent facilities and increased budgets to get the most talented players into Bronco uniforms.

"The athletic department has given its coaches the opportunity to be successful," Davey said. "The financial commitment is there."