Averett University is planning another record enrollment this fall.
In the past four years the university has added 200 new students to bring total enrollment to about 950. With more students, the university is also planning to bring in larger facilities.
The local school wants to build a new and larger sports complex at its North Campus to the tune of $6.3 million. They hope to get started on construction sometime next year.
About 40 percent of Averett students play sports ? a large number many expect to go up as enrollment climbs and a massive new facility is built.
The new sports complex will have a turf field and an eight lane track. There will be a three-story press box and the facility will have about 2,000 seats. Currently, student athletes play on a grass field, which is less tolerable to all the traffic.
Athletic Director Sam Ferguson said with the new complex Averett will add more sports teams including men and women?s track and women?s lacrosse.
?To be honest, higher education is a competitive world and whenever you are recruiting student athletes, the facilities make a big difference,? said Ferguson.
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How does this help Averett?
?What this does is help our university?s goal which is to increase enrollment,? said Ferguson. ?There is a lot of crossover in sports.?
Many of the student athletes looking at colleges play more than one sport. For example, many football players will run track as well.
?We have lost recruits because we don?t have a track and field program,? said Ferguson. With more sports teams come more students and more coaches.
Buddy Rawley, the vice president for institutional advancement, said this can bring in ?new energy and new ideas? to the university and the region.
He said one of the university?s goals is to get 1,100 students by 2014.
?If we get 1,100 students, that is another 10 or 15 professors,? said Rawley. ?These are people who are going to be out in the community.?
Organizers hope the new complex will have the same positive effect the Smith River complex has had in Martinsville. Ferguson said they are constantly getting calls to use the facilities for soccer tournaments and other events. They have also had conversations with local organizations and Danville Parks and Recreation have expressed interest in using them as well.
?If you look at the Grant Center ? it has brought a lot of stuff here, including the Harlem Globetrotters,? said Ferguson in reference to the indoor facility at the Averett North Campus.
Ferguson also said he would welcome George Washington High School, which is also looking to raise money for a new sports complex, to use the facilities ? for a fee ? if they needed to.
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Raising the money
Ferguson presented the plans for the complex at the Rotary Club last month, but the project has been in the works for years. Rawley said they have been actively fundraising since the first of this year and they have some target dates set.
While this is very early in the campaign, but a feasibility study was done beforehand which showed there would be interest in getting building a new complex in this two-year time period.
?At that time we had an idea of upgrading the facility,? said Rawley, ?but we didn?t have concrete plans like we do now.?
The $6.3 million will be raised privately. The university is reaching out to alumni, local and national corporations and applying for as many grants as possibly.
Both Rawley and Ferguson said there has been a lot of interest and they are ?confident? the money can be raised this way. Rawley said the new complex is a definite plan, even if they haven?t raised all the money to begin construction in 2013.
?If it doesn?t happen in that time frame, it doesn?t mean we aren?t going to do it,? Rawley said. Averett officials want to have cash in-hand or pledged before any construction begins though.
Ferguson hopes the field will be competed in time for the 2014 football season.
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