March 17, 2010

Tech athletics reaching out

By Steve Keenan Sports Editor

OAK HILL —

WVU Tech athletic officials are continuing their quest to reach out to local communities. During a recent reception at the Holiday Inn in Oak Hill, members of the athletic department, their supporters, Golden Bear Athletic Club representatives and coaches mingled with members of the public, discussing plans for their future and seeking the public’s involvement in those plans. In several similar forums in recent months, the outlying communities have been very welcoming, says Athletics Director Frank Pergolizzi. An example is the fact that Oak Hill officials and individuals have agreed to allow Tech to utilize the field behind Collins Park to play their remaining home games of the 2010 softball schedule. “That’s our hope, depending on the weather,” said Pergolizzi. “Oak Hill has been very welcoming to us, and we’d (like to use the Oak Hill field) until we develop an on-campus facility.” To make Oak Hill meet collegiate guidelines, Pergolizzi says portable fencing will be installed. “The only problem is the fences are really too far for collegiate softball.” Of his department’s recent gatherings in various places, Pergolizzi says, “We’ve recently done a series of those kinds of things. We want to get outside of Montgomery and put our coaches in positions where they can tell people what’s going on in their programs.” Pergolizzi, who arrived at his new post last summer, says, “I’m having a great time. It’s a good place with good people. We clearly have our challenges, but we’re moving in the right direction.” The school continues, among other things, in its quest to renovate Martin Field, its football facility. New lights “should be done in a couple of weeks” and other work is still planned. “Martin Field is a little more of a comprehensive project.” The school wants to replace the aging artificial turf on Martin, but that likely won’t occur in time for the coming football season. A key component to the upgrade is to continue to explore options to figure out a way to widen the field to allow soccer to be played there, as well. Pergolizzi told the Oak Hill crowd the renovation would add about 50 more home athletic events per year and create more positive school spirit and community involvement. Officials are trying to get in a position to talk to potential donors to help with that and other projects, Pergolizzi said. Much of his time recently has been placed on recruiting new coaches to the staff, the AD adds. “Right now, almost all of my time since the first of the year … has been involved in hiring a bunch of new coaches,” he said. “There isn’t anything more important in my job than getting the very best personnel.” Along the lines of possible reinstatement to the West Virginia Conference, an application to rejoin the NCAA first must be submitted by June 1. “We’re working on that now,” Pergolizzi said. Meeting with the Oak Hill community recently, the Tech administrators and coaches reiterated that the school is trying to attract high-quality student-athletes and that successful athletics programs lead to higher student retention. — E-mail: skeenan@register-herald.com (Steve Pino contributed to this story).