Ready and waiting to build
Union-Tribune 4/8/07
“We did it backwards. We have the teams, we have the coaches and now we need the fields,” said Ruth Mangrum, a Rancho Santa Fe resident who, along with husband, Bob, kicked off fundraising for a baseball and softball facility with a $200,000 donation.
It will cost an estimated $6 million to get everything the Cougars' athletic department wants, including locker rooms, practice fields, batting cages and dugouts. There is a 25-acre lot on campus that has been set aside for the fields.
To add to the Mangrums' donation, the school is hosting a gala fundraising event Saturday titled – not surprisingly – “Fields of Dreams.” There will be a silent auction along with dinner and dancing. The festivities begin at 6 p.m. in the M. Gordon Clarke Field House on campus.
“We're featuring the coaches and athletes,” said Mangrum, who is the event's co-chairwoman. “People are going to meet the coaches and athletes and have them at their tables.”
Cal State San Marcos hosts a similar benefit every year, with a different school area receiving the proceeds.
This year's benefit will support the fledgling athletic program, which is fielding baseball and softball teams for the first time. The school also has teams competing in track and field, cross country, men's and women's soccer, and men's and women's golf. Most of the players on the baseball and softball rosters are from San Diego County.
Establishing successful athletic programs at the college level is not easy. The difficulty is compounded at Cal State San Marcos by a lack of money for athletic scholarships, which hinders recruiting, and by limited facilities. The baseball and softball teams play their home games at San Marcos and Mission Hills high schools, respectively.
In recent years, the quality of the stadiums and weight rooms at universities has become just as important as the scholarships being offered, as evidenced by the race to upgrade facilities at big Division I schools such as Florida and UCLA. It has trickled down to smaller schools that have fewer financial resources.
“We lose recruits because we don't have the facilities here, no doubt about it,” said Dr. Steve Nichols, athletic director for Cal State San Marcos. “We can offer $500 and we don't have a field; it makes a difference.”
Cal State San Marcos is also trying to take the necessary steps to become a member of a conference. Nichols said there are two options for the Cougars' teams.
The first option is the Golden State Athletic Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which includes Point Loma Nazarene University and San Diego Christian College.
Although the Cougars are competing as an independent in the NAIA, the Golden State conference might not be a possibility, Nichols said, because Cal State San Marcos isn't a private, religiously affiliated school, as are the 11 colleges in the conference. The GSAC bylaws state that members “shall be limited to colleges and universities of similar size and educational philosophy.”
The second option, which Nichols says is more logical, is the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The 12-team conference includes University of California San Diego and Cal State Los Angeles and competes in the NCAA Division II.
But there are concerns with that option, Nichols said.
“That's where we probably really belong. But every other school has basketball and we don't,” he said. “If we had those sports we'd be really attractive to the conference.”
Nichols would like men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball to be in Cal State San Marcos' future. For now, he wants to make sure the university is meeting the needs of the teams and the athletes already enrolled.
Success of the “Fields of Dreams” gala and other fundraisers will make Cal State San Marcos a more attractive choice for a conference and for college-bound athletes, Nichols said.
“This is huge for us,” he said. “We're very fortunate to get this much focus. The iron's hot, so we've got to strike.”