Jesuit breaks ground on new baseball park

Posted Jun 15, 2010 by Adam Adkins

Updated Jun 15, 2010 at 04:12 PM

Jesuit High School officially broke ground on its new baseball facility Tuesday during a morning ceremony at Paul Straub Field.

Jesuit principal Joseph R. Sabin was joined by Lee Pallardy III, Chairman of Jesuit’s Board of Trustees, Al Lopez, Jr., President of the Jesuit High School Foundation, Inc., Jesuit athletic director Terry Rupp, Jesuit baseball coach Richie Warren, and baseball players Daniel Gibson and Lance McCullers in supplanting ceremonial shovels into the clay around home plate. Fr. Richard C. Hermes, S.J., President of Jesuit High School, presided over the ceremony.

Conatruction on the new baseball facility, which will cost $2 million, will begin immediately and take approximately seven months to complete, a schedule that won’t conflict with Jesuit’s 2011 season. Approximately $1.2 million has been raised thus far through private donations (most from Jesuit alumni), according to director of development Nick Suszynski, which was “enough to move forward confidently.”

The new facility will include a team training facility, a trophy hall, covered batting cages, team locker rooms (including showers and restroom facilities), public restrooms and coaches offices and meeting rooms. The field will be a natural grass surface and there will be 500 seats, though concourses around the field will offer plenty of standing room.

“I don’t think many high school programs in the country will have a facility like this,” Warren said. “To sink $2 million into one program says a lot about what the school and alumni think of the Jesuit baseball program.”

Photo courtesy of Robin Macar, Jesuit High School