Columnist Dean Juipe: Softball program gets its stadium

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, May 8, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Shan McDonald and I meet once a year, every year, during the spring.

There's nothing secretive about it, although I always arrive unannounced. We exchange greetings and, in recent years at least, we exclude the frivolities and get right to the focal point of our mutual attraction.

This year was no exception.

"What's new with your proposed stadium?" I asked right up front, just as I have for what seems to be a decade.

In times past, she would reply "not much" or "nothing" and we would both lament the lack of attention directed toward her UNLV softball program.

But in the 2001 version of this annual ritual, McDonald offered a unique and more enlightening response.

"It's coming," she said, a pleasant smile overtaking her face. "There've been a couple of little delays, but nothing big. The money's there and it's just about ready to go." Can it be?

"Yeah, the groundbreaking should be soon," McDonald said. "I don't know how much access we'll have to it for practice in the fall, but it'll be done by the start of next season for sure."

After eons on the drawing board, a facility that will bring the Rebels into the 21st century appears ready to spring to life. At a cost of $2.5 million, all of which was obtained through private donations, the school will build a softball stadium at the corner of Swenson and Harmon that will virtually abut its track and tennis facilities.

It can't open too soon for a UNLV softball program that has lost a good deal of the luster it enjoyed during seven consecutive seasons of qualifying for the NCAA tournament back in the early 1990s.

At a recruiting disadvantage with their access-challenged old field that's tucked into campus, the Rebels have endured five straight losing seasons. They're presently 26-28 and are the last-place seed heading into Thursday's opening game vs. San Diego State in the Mountain West tournament at Albuquerque.

Their records the previous four seasons: 19-41, 18-31, 21-30 and 26-28.

"It'll give us a chance to compete in the recruiting battles," McDonald said of the upgrade to a 1,500-seat stadium. "UNLV has a lot to offer and our academics are comparable with the schools we compete against, but you'd be amazed (how facilities affect) 17 and 18 year olds."

McDonald has coached the Rebels since 1987 and has been holding this new stadium out as a carrot to would-be recruits for several years.

"The last three seasons I was promising the kids we'd get a new stadium," she said. "I never tried to mislead a recruit, but we've been slow in getting it done."

Complacency and a lack of money curtailed earlier efforts to build a softball stadium, and the Rebels' record sagged accordingly. But with a new field about to be built, a pressure will accompany both McDonald and her players.

They'll be expected to win.

"You still have to play the games, but I think we'll gain a sense of pride and maybe even intimidate visiting teams a little bit," she said. "In the long run, I hope the new stadium makes a big difference."

It will. It has to.