Indoor facility is priority

The 2008 season for the Youngstown State football team came to an end Saturday afternoon with an exciting finish and victory in the final game.

Although overall it was a disappointing season, the program will go on and start building for next year.

From now until sometime in February, coach Jon Heacock and his staff will devote all their time to recruiting for 2009.

And they’ll have to continue to do it without one of the best recruiting tools in college athletics — an indoor practice facility.

The university has a new indoor facility in the development stage, but it’s evident that it is taking way too long to get this project off the drawing board and into a building stage.

Obviously money to build the project is the major obstacle.

The athletic department has around $3 million raised for the facility.

But that is still a far cry from the $9 to 10 million that is needed to put up a structure worthy of the effort.

If you are going to do it, then do it right.

Football, which generates most of the money to the athletic fund, is a primary reason for building the facility, but at the same time all of the university’s other athletic teams along with the entire student body will reap huge benefits from it.

YSU athletic director Ron Strollo is doing everything he can to get the project moving ahead.

He and the university have been working with Tony Hayek of ms Consultants on developing a “program plan” which will describe the needs and what needs to be contained in the facility along with cost estimates, site recommendations and ultimately drawings that can be used in recruiting and future solicitations.

He hopes to have all this completed sometime next month.

Opinion: Most logical site is outdoor track

It seems to me that the most logical site recommendation would be to put the facility where the outdoor track is located.

They already own the property, so there would be no additional costs there.

Another possible site is the area across Fifth Avenue from Stambaugh Stadium.

But there is a safety factor since students would have to cross the busy street to get there.

The track location also logically sits closer to the student recreation center and campus housing and there are no busy streets to cross.

There is definitely an urgency to get this facility built, especially for recruiting purposes and not just for football.

Akron and Kent State both already have indoor facilities and several other schools in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, such as Western Illinois, Southern Illinois and Illinois State, have plans to build multi-million dollar facilities.

The YSU track teams rent out the Kent State facility to get prepared for the indoor seasons, and twice they have hosted the Horizon League championships there.

But the need for this indoor facility doesn’t stop with Youngstown State athletes or its general student population.

The facility would also become a community facility used by youth soccer, baseball, softball, track and football.

Multiple groups can use facility at the same time

With the use of an elaborate netting system, the facility could be used by multiple groups at the same time.

Akron’s new facility is in use from early mornings until late at night by the community on weekends.

While recruiting for YSU sports teams, especially football, are the primary concerns, this will also be a great recruiting tool for the university’s general enrollment.

This needs to be an entire university endeavor because the entire university will benefit from it.

“The athletic department always served as the front porch for the university,” Strollo said. “Potential students are always brought through the athletic facilities when they tour the campus and the indoor facility would be a major drawing point for any new student considering enrolling here.”

Strollo, with the help of former athletic director Joe Malmisur, has been working hard to get this project moving.

The university has just raised over $50 million to build a new school of business, but I can guarantee you that there will be more students that will go through an indoor facility than there ever will go through the new business school.

Youngstown State has built a great tradition in football and its current facilities are still among the best around, but for this program to get back to the top, especially with recruiting, an indoor facility is needed and the sooner the better.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.