Jaksa, McKinstry, pitching prospect respond to news of $1 million donation
Photo courtesy of CMU Athletics.
The addition of a state-of-the-art indoor baseball training facility to Theunissen Stadium became a reality, thanks to a $500,000 anonymous donation.
The Performance Development Center, potentially a 7,000 to 7,500 square-foot, all-turf complex will be built next to the team’s clubhouse.
The donation is the largest monetary commitment in the program’s history and one of the largest in athletic department history.
The donor additionally pledged another $500,000, to match other donations to the training facility dollar for dollar.
Donors will have until June 1, 2016 to meet the $500,000 threshold.
There is no timeline yet for the project’s completion, but Head Baseball Coach Steve Jaksa said the timeline for completing the complex depends on where the university prioritizes getting the project done.
“We’ve already had a feasibility study done, we’ve had some preliminary drawings. Now this is going to be a real-life design phase,” he said. “It’s already been through the process. Now we can go out and get actual designs and get bids on designs and put a spade in the ground and go to work.”
The new facility will also be helpful in recruiting.
Left-handed pitching prospect Sam Goodman visited the Chippewas’ Skill Day practice Monday. The Champlin, Minnesota native said its appealing to a recruit to see a university and fan base invest in its team.
“It’s good to know (CMU) is going in the right direction and doing good things,” Goodman said. “(CMU) being a winning program makes you want to come. Giving players a place to work out and train and hit is big time. When you’re playing 12 months a year, it makes a big difference.”
Jaksa said the new facility would not only help recruiting and player development, but put the program’s facilities at an elite level.
“Right now, we are already in the position where not many (recruits) say no about coming to visit us,” he said. “There’s not many facilities that have the things we have, where you have a clubhouse attached to your third-base dugout. Now, we are looking to enhance what we already have.”
Jaksa said the team has great practices during their scheduled two-and-a-half hour practice time in the Indoor Athletic Complex, but that's where the practice ends.
“The limiting thing is more the after-practice stuff,” he said. “If a guy wants to come back after dinner or if he wants to hit for 20 extra minutes to work on one thing. Maybe watched his video tape and he wants to work on something, now he can do it.”
One player who may be around once the new facility is completed is sophomore infielder Zach McKinstry.
“Even when it’s raining, snowing, we can go in there and have our own cages,” McKinstry said. “We’ll be able to field balls, pitchers will be able to throw. Late at night guys want to hit—10, 11 o’clock. When they don’t have any homework or studying they want to hit.”
Director of Athletics Dave Heeke said the gift is a "difference maker" for the program in a press release Monday.
"To have a donor share in our championship vision and invest in a manner that will make it a reality is tremendously rewarding," he said. "I am ecstatic for our student-athletes, grateful for the generosity shown and believe that the rest of the Chippewa family will step forward to ensure that we make the most of this opportunity."
