Submitted photo | Franklin College Athletics
It was all a dream …
About 15 years ago, Franklin College baseball coach Lance Marshall approached Kerry Prather, then the school’s athletic director and now its president, with some sketches and an idea for an indoor hitting area that could double as a training facility for all 21 of the school’s teams.
Though it took a good while for that idea to become a tangible reality, the Johnson Memorial Health Athletic Annex is, by all accounts, worth the wait.
Franklin College held a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday afternoon to show off its new digs, which Grizzly athletes have been using for the last few weeks. The space features six netted bays that baseball and softball players can use for hitting and pitching and the school’s golfers can also utilize — indeed, athletes from all three of those sports were putting it to use during the tour.
For the pitchers, one of the bays has a radar gun; Marshall would eventually like to add one in each bay. The hitters can now utilize a simulation program that tracks a batted ball’s exit velocity and launch angle and also shows which areas of the strike zone are strengths or weaknesses for each player.
In addition to that main area — which is covered with field turf and can be used for soccer and other sports when the nets come up — the new annex also features a weight-training room with seven squat and bench stations and a free-weight area. That space, located on the front side of the building, not only doubles the school’s weight training space but also has big windows that give the facility a much cleaner look from the outside.
(Look for more coverage and photos in Thursday’s Daily Journal.)
It is exactly what Marshall and Prather both hoped it would be — a much-needed supplement to the facilities already in place across the street at Spurlock Center.
“There’s a lot that can go on here at on time, while you’ve got a lot going on at Spurlock,” Prather said.
While the current Grizzlies are already enjoying their new toys, the bigger benefits will be felt in the long term. The annex provides the school’s coaches a shiny new object that they can flash for prospective students, athletes or not.
Marshall says he’s already seeing the benefits on that front.
“What kids today want to do when they get to college is they want to develop, and they want to know they have somewhere to develop and the tools to develop,” he said. “This gives them the tools, the ability, the facility, so we couldn’t really ask for more. It’s been fantastic and it’s already starting to make an impact in recruiting.”
While the spending wars will never be what they’ve become at the Division I level, there is still some aspect of keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to smaller colleges. The addition of the annex alongside what was already in place ensures that Franklin College will be able to remain competitive when it comes to courting young talent.
Considering how much the school leans on sports to fill out its student body, that’s a big deal.
“We always think in terms of recruitment and retention,” Prather said. “When high school kids visit, they want to know that you have the resources to help them continue to develop. … It really does impact both ends of that equation.”
Ryan O’Leary is the sports editor for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
