LadyCavscontinue to battleIor fieldoncampus

by Jim Martin sports editor

A common scene for the 1997 Cabrini's women's softball team was taking the field for one of their home games at Valley Forge Christian College, which is located 30 minutes from Cabrini, and looking into the stands and seeing seven to 10 fans.

The women's softball team was forced to move their home games to Valley Forge Christian College because the softball field at Cabrini did not meet NCAA regulations.

In September of 1996, an NCAA rule came into effect which said all softball fields must contain an all-dirt infield.

However, because Cabrini's infield contained grass, the team was not able to play their games at Cabrini.

Cabrini could not make the infield all grass because the infield was part of the field hockey and lacrosse fields.

In addition to the lack of a dirt infield,_ the quality of the grass surface in the outfield is very low and poses a possible threat of injury to the players.

According to Rosanne Carfagno, head coach of the softball team, Cabrini was aware the new NCAA rule was going to come into effect.

Carfagno said James Hedtke, the former coach of the softball team, sent a letter out to the teams participating in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference, as well as to school administrators, two years ago saying that Cabrini's softball field was going to haYe to be renovated.

However, when th~ new rule came into effect in September, Cabrini had not renovated the current field and thus was left without.a field to play on.

Carfagno then began calling around trying to find a field close to campus.

However, Carfagno was unable to find a field close to campus and the team was forced to make Valley Forge Christian College their home field.

According to Carfagno and many of the players on the softball team, playing their home games at Valley Forge was a definite disadvantage.

Besides having to play their games at Valley Forge Christian College, the team also had to go there to practice.

"It took a lot out of us having to travel back and forth every day," said senior outfielder Denise Canaris.

"It cut down too much on our playing time. We had to travel for a total of an hour, which was an hour we could have used to practice," she added.

According to many of the players, it was also very disappointing to play in front of such a small crowd where you have little fan support.

"Every athlete knows, when there are a lot of fans, you tend to play better," said senior infielder and pitcher Melissa Hunsberger.

"That never happened to us this year."

"I think it hurt the entire team because we were used to having a lot of fans in years past, and this year the only fans we had were our parents," Canaris said.

"We got no school support and no coverage in Loquitur because no one could get off campus to see us play," Carfagno added.

Carfagno and some of the players blamed Dr. Antoinette Iadarola, college president, for having to play off campus.

"She had the opportunity to alleviate the problem in the beginning and chose not to," Hunsberger said.

"I think that with Iadarola and the rest of this school being mostly female, there should be more concern about the female athletes at this school."

"It amazes me that a president who is supposed to have her finger on what the campus needs can allow this to happen," Carfagno said. •

As of right now, Carfagno said she and the members of the softball team have no idea what is going to happen next year. However, many players are still holding out hope that a field will be built on campus or that they can at least play on a field that is much closer to Cabrini.

" It [The situation is] really, really sad. I just hope that the school will do something to get the team back on Cabrini's campus or at least a little closer to the campus, because I think the team will be very talented next year," Canaris said.