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  • This might increase our chances of going D1

    Now we need some donors to come through!!!


    Potential land acquisition excites Maverick coaches

    »
    Nebraska Board of Regents

    UNO Athletic Director David Herbster can look beyond the south edge of campus and see the potential.

    Administrators will ask the NU Board of Regents at its meeting Friday in Lincoln to approve agreements with the Ak-Sar-Ben Future Trust that could lead to the University of Nebraska at Omaha adding 71 acres of land.

    Game fields for the baseball, softball and soccer teams, as well as practice facilities for hockey and football, could potentially wind up in the area that includes the 54-acre Chili Greens golf course and a separate 17-acre area.

    "What it could do for our athletic department is unreal," Herbster said. "It would enhance what we have, what we're doing in our community and what we provide to our students."

    A practice facility for the hockey program would help the UNO athletic department's major revenue producer and its only NCAA Division I program. Hockey coach Mike Kemp said his program is one of only a few in Division I that doesn't have an on-campus practice facility.

    "It's critical for the future of the program," Kemp said. "It gives us the opportunity to have ice not just from October through March, but throughout the entire year."

    Year-round access to an on-campus facility may not always be a deciding factor in recruiting, Kemp said, but how those recruits develop once they get on campus can be affected.

    "It hurts us that we don't have an unlimited amount of ice to use in the offseason, when guys can work on their individual skills," he said. "This would give us an equal footing with other hockey programs in that area."

    Even though baseball coach Bob Herold and his well-traveled team finally has a place of its own at Boys Town, he wouldn't mind making one more move to a potential on-campus field some day.

    "I'm in no hurry to move, but any time you're closer to school you don't have to put your players in a car to go to your home field," he said. "Any time you're close to campus, it's good."

    Herold is cautiously optimistic. Other plans have come and gone, like the 2002 proposal in which UNO and the College of St. Mary were to have shared an area near Ak-Sar-Ben for baseball and softball.

    In some ways, the UNO softball program has a home-field advantage at Claussen-Westgate Field. The Mavs are used to the roar of Interstate 80 traffic and passing trains. But it makes practices difficult.

    "It's not conducive to instruction," coach Jeanne Tostenson said. "And I feel like our softball field needs help aesthetically. Another atmosphere, where it's quieter and part of a whole athletic facility, would help put our program on a higher level. We're seeing a lot of newer facilities at the Division II level and ours is not state of the art by any means. Recruits look at that."

    UNO and the Ak-Sar-Ben Future Trust hope to exchange land each owns near 67th and Pine Streets, an area that includes the current home of the UNO women's soccer team. A new soccer field would obviously be part of the UNO wish list, even though the soccer program isn't complaining about its current state.

    "We're the lucky ones, because baseball, softball and hockey don't have a place on campus to call their own," soccer coach Don Klosterman said. "But we would look forward to it and maybe we could have more room for practice or to co-op with soccer clubs around town to have something very nice, very ideal for us."

    Klosterman said the current soccer facility is competitive with others in Division II, but commitments haven't been made for lights, concession stands, bleachers and a press box in anticipation of the potential move.

    The UNO football team used to practice somewhat regularly in the area adjacent to the current soccer field, but uses Caniglia Field nearly all the time since new FieldTurf was installed.

    Coach Pat Behrns said he wouldn't mind having a grass practice area, particularly in the weeks when UNO is scheduled to play a road game against a team with a grass field.

    "It wouldn't be bad to have some grass," he said. "I'd like to practice there early in the season to get off the turf a little bit. If we had a facility, we would use it."

    Parking, housing and academic buildings are other possibilities for the area that UNO is hoping to acquire.

    If approved, it would still take some time to get the building process started. That includes planning and fund-raising.

    "I don't know what the specific steps would be," Herbster said. "You need to have the blueprints and designs that will get people excited to give money."

    Projecting a final price tag is a difficult proposition.

    "A lot would be determined once we start digging and we find out what's underneath and how much has to be moved," Herbster said. "Another variable is gas prices - all those big machines in construction projects are powered by gas. And if we don't come up with enough money, then something will get cut."




  • #2
    Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

    Why?

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

      Originally posted by Mavericks#1
      (Irrelevant article deleted)
      Please leave.
      "I think we'll be OK"

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

        OMG, I almost feel sorry for UNO. Reading that article makes their facilities look like a joke.

        Hockey coach Mike Kemp said his program is one of only a few in Division I that doesn't have an on-campus practice facility.

        My home town only had a population of 15,000 and my high school had a year round hockey facility across the street from the school. I can't believe that UNO even has a D-1 hockey program, I guess if you can flood a corn field and play hockey, you too can call yourself a D-1 hockey program.

        Now we move on to the pride of UNO - their softball and baseball facilities. When I read this:

        In some ways, the UNO softball program has a home-field advantage at Claussen-Westgate Field.

        I thought they were going to claim that they were using cows from the pasture as extra defensemen. I was mistaken, because the real home-field advantage is this.

        The Mavs are used to the roar of Interstate 80 traffic and passing trains. But it makes practices difficult.

        What do they do, practice playing in traffic? Great recuiting tool. You tell the recruit, if you can run across 6 lanes of traffic, without getting hit, we will let you walk-on.


        Even though baseball coach Bob Herold and his well-traveled team finally has a place of its own at Boys Town, he wouldn't mind making one more move to a potential on-campus field some day.

        They finally have a place of their own, what were they doing before, playing at the city park? Now they are playing at a place called "Boy's Town?" Sounds like a name of a gay bar (not that there is anything wrong with that).


        We're seeing a lot of newer facilities at the Division II level and ours is not state of the art by any means.

        Mav#D-2, your current facilities are sub-par for D-2, how can you ever expect to move up to D-1. Reading your posts, I thought UNO was going to make the move soon. But I can tell from quoting the UNO faculty that you need to upgrade your facilities just to be on par with the other D-2 schools and you are a long, long, long ways from even considering a move up to our league.

        Have fun sharing that sport complex with St. Mary's college.

        (\__/)
        (='.'=)
        (")_(") Feed the Rabbit!!

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

          I was in Omaha (nice little city... terrible restaurants in the Old Market area) for the weekend and read the stories in the Weird-Herald. The land acquisition is a big deal for UNO, and was approved by the regents. But nobody in any story I read said anything about D1 for any other athletic programs. Pure speculation. And it's all about a million years off. They have to raise the money to buy the land (the regents rejected the idea of using eminent domain to acquire it) and then the money for the facilities.

          So, yes, UNO might be going D1 in about 2050.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

            what restraunt did you eat at in the old market that you hated??

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

              Originally posted by Mavericks#1
              what restraunt did you eat at in the old market that you hated??
              I suspect you saw the SDSU DI fan as you were clearing tables. Probably sitting by his peers from the U of Nebraska.

              Losers = DII mediocrity = UNO
              We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

              We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                Originally posted by jackmd

                I suspect you saw the SDSU DI fan as you were clearing tables.   Probably sitting by his peers from the U of Nebraska.

                Losers = DII mediocrity = UNO
                       I define mediocrity as not winning a conference championship since 1963. Montana 7 SDSU 0.  A loss is a loss no matter who you play. I have never in my life saw people who revel in moral victories than you people. As a life long Husker fan I will never consider SDSU a peer of any kind. They will always be that freshman who is picking up jock straps off the locker room floor. The last good table clearing that I saw was that of an NAIA school clearing your D1 Rabbitts right off the table in Frost Arena.
                       Jack MD, maybe you can use that Doctorate degree to explain why SDSU has only won more than eight football games a few times since 1963 and never had a ten win season since then.   41 years and counting!!!!
                I guess when you haven't had a reason to celebrate for 41 years that a 7 point loss is reason to get excited.    

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                  Originally posted by Mavericks#1

                         As a life long Husker fan I will never consider SDSU a peer of any kind.



                  MAVS#dII, life long Husker fan?

                  (I thought Husker fans always wore red)?


                  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D


                  JBNJBQ

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                    Originally posted by Mavericks#1

                           I define mediocrity as not winning a conference championship since 1963. Montana 7 SDSU 0.  A loss is a loss no matter who you play. I have never in my life saw people who revel in moral victories than you people. As a life long Husker fan I will never consider SDSU a peer of any kind. They will always be that freshman who is picking up jock straps off the locker room floor. The last good table clearing that I saw was that of an NAIA school clearing your D1 Rabbitts right off the table in Frost Arena.
                           Jack MD, maybe you can use that Doctorate degree to explain why SDSU has only won more than eight football games a few times since 1963 and never had a ten win season since then.   41 years and counting!!!!
                    I guess when you haven't had a reason to celebrate for 41 years that long a 7 point loss is reason to get excited.    
                    I'm a husker fan, no a mavericks fan, no a bluejays fan, actually I root for the Omaha Beef, no wait i am a husker fan when they are winning. Wait Creighton just beat SDSU in soccer, i have always been a Bluejay fan more than anything...How STUPID, pick a team and be loyal.

                    I guess fans of lower division schools need to pick D1 schools to root for so they can say they are fans of someone at that level.
                    "I'd like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee." - Joe D.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                      This does not increase the chances that anyone will give a rip about UNO.
                      "You just stood their screaming. Fearing no one was listening to you. Hearing only what you wanna hear. Knowing only what you heard." Metallica

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                        The truth of the matter is that UNO campus is the old Omaha U campus and its clustered into a very nice residential area and they have been running out of space for a long time. AKSARBEN was a big horse racing track and also Peney Park and Elmwood Park with tons of space.  What happen here is that UNO gets some more breathing room as a campus moves into the adbandoned race track area and the City of Omaha loses picnic area.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                          Originally posted by MilwaukeeJacksAlum
                          This does not increase the chances that anyone will give a rip about UNO.
                          Precision from a lawyer? Nice to see once in awhile. No need for pontification or grandstanding when fact is fact. Mav just doesn't get it.
                          We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

                          We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                            Wulf told you to say that didn't he?
                            "You just stood their screaming. Fearing no one was listening to you. Hearing only what you wanna hear. Knowing only what you heard." Metallica

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: This might increase our chances of going D1

                              Originally posted by MilwaukeeJacksAlum
                              Wulf told you to say that didn't he?
                              He does think that you carry on a bit too much in some of your posts. I disagree with Wulf.

                              Maybe I'll bump into you at the Beef bowl. Preliminary plan is Mercury Morse's tailgate spot around 5 pm. He may have been a few years before your time.

                              As for this topic, nothing to add.
                              We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

                              We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

                              Comment

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