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Potential land acquisition excites Maverick coaches
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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."
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."
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