By Iron Blade student reporters Refentse Maselwa and Wesley Trivette
Amid the sawing of wood, the bubbling chatter of excitement, and the sound of shovels hitting dirt, former Panther Coach Vickie Van Kleek stood meekly, unassumingly.
“This is extremely humbling, you don’t have on your life goal sheet that I’m going to have a complex named after me,” Van Kleek expressed, “I’m really honored to have this complex.”
Van Kleek was the guest of honor Oct. 14 for the ground-breaking of the new Van Kleek softball complex on campus.
Van Kleek was the Panther softball coach for 24 seasons before retiring in 2015. During her tenure, she won 531 games, including three regular season USA South Athletic Conference championships (1994, 1995, 2013). She led the team to USA South Softball Tournament titles in 2002, 2005 and 2012, earning NCAA Division III playoffs appearances all three years.
She coached 140 Academic All-Conference Players, 23 All-State players, and received the 2013 USA South Coach of the Year Award. She was inducted into Ferrum College’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.
“It (the complex) is a long time coming,” said Steve Harmon, student assistant softball coach from 1991 to 1996. “(Van Kleek) came to this college and brought will and the want to be better, not only as an athlete but as a student. Coaching with Vickie, that was her biggest thing, you were going to be a student before you were an athlete.”
Initially, back in its infancy, the team played on Bassett Field and then moved to a field with no bleachers. Spectators had to bring their own chairs and sit around the field or drive up and sit in their cars and watch. The players seemed excited about the new changes.
“Waited four years for it…and it’s finally happening,” Lyndsey Sears, senior, exclaimed.
Brianna Weaver, junior, is equally enthusiastic.
“I feel like we’re all super excited to get to play in a stadium,” Weaver said. “Before, we still played here, we just didn’t have a stadium, which no ODAC team has their own stadium.”
That will soon change for the Panthers.
Through the fundraising campaign called ‘Batting a 1000’, the college raised $330,000 from 119 donors, exceeding its goal of $100,000. John Sutyak, Athletic Director, expresses his gratitude to the many donors who helped make the Batting 1000 campaign a success.
“Athletics has always been an important part of the Ferrum College experience, and our softball program has enjoyed tremendous success over the years, on and off the field. We are delighted to honor Coach VVK and our softball players, past and present, with this new facility,” Sutyak said.
The college estimates the total cost will be around $900,000 for the project, including equipment and furnishings. The cost may fluctuate due to the price of material and workers. Fundraising still continues as the complex is in progress of being built, and there is still time to add to their already raised $330,000.
The softball complex is the first sports complex at Ferrum to be named after a woman, and officials say the fans should be able to enjoy the new facility by the start of the season.
“It’s going to be nice to come to a softball game and not have to bring a chair, to have a facility to sit in, to have restrooms, to have workout facilities for the girls–you know whether it be batting cages or some type of indoor facility. It should create 15-20 more students coming to Ferrum College every year for the softball program only,” Harmon said.
See additional event photographs here.
Iron Blade reporter Refentse Maselwa is a sophomore from Pretoria, South Africa. She’s an accounting major and journalism minor. Reporter Wesley Trivette is a freshman majoring in Business from Lewisville, NC.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to what will be one of the best softball facilities in the ODAC! For those who would like to support this project, please do so at Ferrum.edu/giving. There will be future announcements for donation opportunities including buying lockers in honor of friends and family and naming opportunities on the field and in the complex. Those interested in these opportunities to support Ferrum Softball, please contact Bart Smith, Director of Development at bcsmith@ferrum.edu.
