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Baseball Player Development Center

Deacfreak07

Ain't played nobody, PAWL!
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Baseball donors step up again. If nothing else, Tom Walter is one hell of a fundraising coach, and WF has some really successful and generous alums. This is great for the program.

http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/111815aaa.html

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest Athletics began work on Monday on the first phase of a planned $14 million player development center. Construction of the $9.5 million initial phase was made possible by the gifts of a number of generous donors.

When complete, the state-of-the-art, 41,000 square foot facility will include a team locker room, team lounge, training room, equipment room, video conference room, team meeting room, a full kitchen, coaches offices, professional players locker space, a Wake Forest baseball heritage area and an indoor batting facility. Plans for the project also include renovation and relocation of the home dugout and bullpen and construction of a pitching laboratory, complete with 18 high-speed cameras designed to analyze the biomechanics of each player.

The player development center will be located along the third-base line at Wake Forest Baseball Park. The Demon Deacons’ home dugout will be relocated to the third-base side of the stadium, and the pitching lab will be built adjacent to the renovated bullpen. Construction of the initial phase is expected to be complete in January 2017.

Fundraising efforts are still underway for future phases of construction and renovations to Wake Forest Baseball Park, including the 100’x100’ indoor batting facility, which will be adjacent to the player development center and will be constructed without interior supporting posts, giving the Wake Forest coaching and training staffs maximum flexibility in their use of the space. Above the facility, plans call for renovations to the concessions stands and restrooms as well as a concourse-level viewing area that could be utilized for both Wake Forest baseball and football games and for other special events.

“As college coaches we are in the business of developing men of character, giving them a meaningful degree and helping them reach their maximum potential as a baseball player,” said head baseball coach Tom Walter. “This facility will set the bar nationally in all three of those areas.”

“The player development center is going to have a significant impact on the training of our student-athletes and overall excellence of our baseball program, and we are grateful to all of the generous donors who helped us get to this point.” said Director of Athletics Ron Wellman.

A ceremonial groundbreaking event is being planned for early 2016. More details will follow.

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Would be pretty cool if Wake could put together some sort of KenPom type academic program for sports stats.
 
Would be even cooler if we qualified for the ACC tournament.....

You don't see this as a means to that end? Seems like investing money in facilities that directly impact players is a solid recruiting strategy. Especially if private donors are willing to fund the project.
 
Very impressive.
Kudos to the guys giving the money
 
Please advise when we recruit as well as Vandy & Rice.
 
Is our baseball stadium not on campus anymore?

Wake bought the old Warthogs / Dash stadium 6-7 years ago and moved the team there. The on-campus stadium was torn down, freeing up additional space for the golf facility.

Feels like so much money has been poured / is being poured into this program. Hopefully it will pay off eventually.
 
I can't see this ongoing arms race for facilities in college sports working out well for small schools like Wake.
 
I can't see this ongoing arms race for facilities in college sports working out well for small schools like Wake.

Depends on the sport. Football? Not so much. Basketball, probably behind, but much closer to the elites. Soccer, Tennis, Golf, Baseball, etc. certainly. We are probably already ahead of the curve in all 4 of those.
 
Will this matter if kids are still having to pay $200k to play baseball at wake? Baseball team only gets like what 11 scholarships for 30 some players. Those good players are going to go to a big public school where they only have to pay $30k. Or atleast that seems to be the trend lately. Hopefully all this cool tech will help get those kids anyway.
 
At the end of the day someone gave the money for baseball so they have to put it to use but when my nephew took a tour of all the NC schools last Summer, it was alarming for WFU. Our football facilities were at best 7th in the state behind UNC, NC State, Duke, ECU, App St, and Charlotte. From a weight room and locker room point of view, I would say lower than that. Just my opinion, but those needed to be addressed much more so than an indoor facility in terms of priorities. Would be great for this money to go to football but that is the way it goes I suppose.
 
Someone gave money for earmarked baseball because an AD rep came asking for money for baseball. Alumnus X didn't just call up Wellman and say, I've got $4 million, i want to go to the baseball team and you need to build a new player development facility. Walter told Wellman he wanted/needed it, and Wellman called Alumnus and asked for money for said facility that they were planning to build.
 
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Someone gave money for earmarked baseball because an AD rep came asking for money for baseball. Alumna X didn't just call up Wellman and say, I've got $4 million, i want to go to the baseball team and you need to build a new player development facility. Walter told Wellman he wanted/needed it, and Wellman called Alumna and asked for money for said facility that they were planning to build.

Most of the money for baseball has come from former baseball players. They have a pretty significant interest in baseball.
 
Someone gave money for earmarked baseball because an AD rep came asking for money for baseball. Alumna X didn't just call up Wellman and say, I've got $4 million, i want to go to the baseball team and you need to build a new player development facility. Walter told Wellman he wanted/needed it, and Wellman called Alumna and asked for money for said facility that they were planning to build.

Most of the money for baseball has come from former baseball players. They have a pretty significant interest in baseball.

But, importantly, not a single dollar has come from a baseball alumna. Not a cent.
 
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