Groundbreaking for Vickie Van Kleeck Softball Complex Celebrates Improvements to Enhance Game Day Experience for Players and Fans

Ferrum College held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Vickie Van Kleeck Softball Complex during Homecoming in October to celebrate the start of construction of the new softball facility that is named in honor of Coach Van Kleeck and her 24 years of service as head softball coach for the Panthers. Improvements will include new club-level seating, a new press box, locker rooms, and other amenities to enhance the game day experience for the players and fans.

Coach Van Kleeck compiled almost 600 career wins in her 26 seasons as a head softball coach. She posted 17 winning seasons in 24 years at Ferrum and led the Panthers to win multiple USA South Athletic Conference season titles and USA South tournament titles, as well as multiple appearances in the NCAA Division III Softball Championships. She was the 1989 New South Athletic Conference Softball Coach of the Year and the 2013 USA South Softball Coach of the Year. Coach Van Kleeck also served on the NCAA Softball Rules Committee from 2008–13, the final two years as National Chair. She also served from 2005–15 as Ferrum College’s senior woman administrator within the department of athletics.

A formal dedication ceremony will be held this spring once the facility improvements are completed.

A group of Ferrum College women’s basketball alumnae and friends gathered December 3, 2022, at Swartz Gym to celebrate the life and legacy of longtime women’s basketball coach Donna Doonan, who passed away in October 2021.

Doonan’s players and friends remembered her by hanging a memorial sign in the Swartz Gym lobby, and then shared lunch and stories in the Blue Ridge Mountain Room in Franklin Hall. Afterward, the group met back in Swartz Gym to cheer on the Ferrum women’s basketball team as they battled rival Randolph-Macon College.

In addition to coaching women’s basketball, Doonan served as senior woman administrator within the department of athletics, and coached four other sports. She also taught a number of courses during her tenure at the College. A pioneer in women’s athletics, Doonan joined the Panther coaching staff in the fall of 1976 after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Lynchburg College.

Ferrum alumna Kelly Caputo ’87 said of Doonan, “She loved what she did and cared deeply about everybody. She taught us more than basketball.”

This year marks Ferrum College’s 110th year as an institution of learning and discovery. Ferrum’s journey from a training school to a college was paved by pioneers and visionaries who believed in our mission and our community. This thought has crossed my mind a lot over the past year, particularly as Ferrum enters 2023 with a goal of reaffirming its mission and values while embracing innovation and progress. It is easy to overlook the foresight and unwavering commitment Ferrum’s earliest visionaries had for this place. Even our motto, Not Self, But Others, an inseparable part of the Ferrum story, was brought into existence by Ferrum’s first president, Dr. Benjamin Beckham, with an earlier iteration of: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

One of the things I enjoy most about our work is finding opportunities to celebrate and honor the lives and legacies of those who have left, and continue to leave, a lasting mark on Ferrum College. In 2021, this culminated in a year-long campaign, It’s the People, in which we profiled over 50 individuals who make up the heart and soul of our school.

Last year, we were able to recognize a few of those individuals through capital improvements on campus. Following successful fundraising campaigns, we held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Richard L. Smith Center for International Programs in April 2022. In the fall, we celebrated the groundbreaking of what will become the Vickie Van Kleeck Softball Complex. We also unveiled the Donna Doonan Memorial in Swartz gym lobby, recognizing the life and contributions of former women’s basketball coach, Donna Doonan, who passed away in the fall of 2021.

With each new initiative, I am reminded of our own collective responsibility for future generations of Ferrum students and supporters. Tomorrow’s leaders will inherit the work that we do today. Looking back on this past year, I am proud of the work we do and the progress we have made. Fundraising has increased 62% in the past two years, and we have seen considerable growth in scholarships, first-time donors, and capital improvements to the College.

There is still plenty left to do – there always is. Ferrum’s 110th year is a rebirth in many ways, harkening back to our earliest days where we relied on grit, determination, and conviction. Fortunately for us, we can learn from the visionaries of yesterday to shape Ferrum College for tomorrow.

Thank you for a fantastic year, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

With Panther Pride,

Wilson Paine ’07 Vice President for Institutional Advancement