Home of Southeastern Athletics

BY TONYA LOWENTRITT

Athletics have been an integral part of Southeastern since 1930, only five years after the University’s founding. Since then, the spirit for competition and school pride has only grown—as have the number of sports, players, and game attendees.

Recent plans for enhanced facilities, coupled with a $100,000 NCAA grant, will help Southeastern Athletics and its studentathletes continue to flourish for many more years to come.

These new state-of-the-art facilities will help elevate both academics and Athletics at the University. The facilities improvements will encompass over 50,000 square feet and are made possible through a combination of public and private funds.

The multi-phase, multi-year project began with an update and enhancement for the home of Lion Baseball, Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field, where a new entranceway, ticket booth and additional concessions area are being constructed. In addition, along the left-field line, a newly constructed baseball fieldhouse facility will include locker rooms, offices, meeting areas, and storage space, as well as improved athletic training facilities. This new home for Southeastern Baseball is expected to be completed in late 2023.

In conjunction with private funds made available through the efforts of the Lion Athletic Association and Southeastern Foundation, Southeastern was approved for a capital outlay project during the 2022 Legislative Session that will provide significant renovations and enhancements for the academic athletic training program, as well as Intercollegiate Athletics.

The new and upgraded facilities will serve as home for the University’s Master of Science in Athletic Training, along with Southeastern Intercollegiate Athletics. In addition to classrooms and laboratory facilities for the athletic training program, expanded space for sports medicine, new locker rooms, and offices for Southeastern football and soccer programs will be part of the project.

Southeastern is one of only three universities in the state of Louisiana that offers a master's degree in athletic training. The new facilities confirm Southeastern’s ongoing commitment to the athletic training academic program and greatly assist in helping ensure athletic training students become “real-world” ready as part of their academic experiences.

“We’re excited to announce this historic addition for Southeastern Athletics and our athletic training program,” said Southeastern Director of Athletics Jay Artigues. “This project is a game changer, as the facility enhancements will not only be beneficial to our department, but to the University and community as a whole. Our student-athletes continually embody our mission statement of excellence in the classroom, community, and competition, and this project will give the Lions and Lady Lions the opportunity to build on that success and elevate our programs to the next level.”

“Athletic trainers are highly trained healthcare professionals that support the sports medicine team,” said College of Nursing and Health Sciences Dean Ann Carruth. “As such, a strong partnership with Athletics to provide real-world experiences is integral to the success of the program. We are very fortunate to have these new resources that will benefit the academic program and our students.”

The athletic training and Intercollegiate Athletics facilities project is currently in design, with construction anticipated to begin in early 2024 and completion expected by the fall of 2025.

“We are excited that donors, athletic boosters, and corporate sponsors are stepping up to provide private support to match state funds for these facility enhancements. For example, all of the baseball program enhancements are being made entirely through private funds. Significant private matching funds are also being raised to support the other facility enhancements,” said Southeastern President John L. Crain.

These exciting changes will come alongside other campus enhancements, including a full renovation of D Vickers Hall that will feature a new, ultramodern television and video production teaching space.

And the good news doesn’t stop there. Southeastern also became one of only 13 recipients of the NCAA’s ’22-’23 Accelerating Academic Success Program (AASP) Award.

The NCAA annually awards more than $1 million in AASP grants to colleges and universities to help boost academic programs and initiatives, which tie to graduation and the overall success of its student-athletes.

Southeastern, Austin Peay, Cal State-Northridge, Cleveland State, Coppin State, Delaware State, Indiana State, Nicholls, Norfolk State, Saint Peter’s, Tennessee State, Texas Southern and UT Martin were this year’s recipients.

The $100,000 grant will be used for student-athletes to attend Summer Bridge; for life skills programming; to assist in degree completion; and to support technology upgrades and professional development for academic support staff.