Athletic Director Sharon Marquandt talks upcoming renovations and other STLCC sports changes
BY: LUCAS SEGALL
Staff
Every sport that St. Louis Community College has to offer will be seeing either changes in venue and/or upgrades coming within the next season. In the near future, the Meramec and Forest Park campuses will get major renovations to their sports facilities. Students on the Meramec campus can expect to see changes to exterior fields, with a new soccer field for men’s and women’s soccer and new turf fields for softball and baseball.
At the Forest Park campus, plans for the basketball courts to get new air conditioning units and new flooring are in the works. If plans for the gym follow through, then volleyball will be transferred from Meramec to Forest Park.
Athletic Director Sharon Marquandt said that “The goal is for the teams not to not be able to play on campus, so we want the field to be completed before their next seasons.” So what is the time timeline for these projects? Marquandt said that they are looking to start construction on the soccer fields sometime in spring, with softball tentatively and baseball following (in the) summer and fall.”
She continued, “These facilities are going to be a huge boost in the recruiting opportunities of our coaches.”
Marquandt is hopeful that these renovations will help coaches draw in more and better student-athletes to the college’s campuses. When comparing STLCC to other community colleges in the state like Metropolitan in Kansas City, Marquandt thinks that these improvements will “bump up that road and we will be sought after more by student athletes.”
Students worried about getting to class on time and how this construction will affect campus walkability should not expect much of a difference; the renovations to the softball and baseball fields are likely to only affect Parking Lots R or Q. Soccer field renovations could affect parking lot E.
With the moving of sports teams to different campuses, college officials want to make sure that every college has some sort of sports representation, while also being diverse and fun for students.
“It’s all about giving students the opportunity to have an athletic experience at St Louis Community College that’s well rounded and getting them a quality education on top of it,” Marquandt said.
As a part of the changes, both men’s and women’s soccer will be moving from the Florissant Valley campus back to Meramec, with cross-country and track and field will likely heading to Florissant Valley. Marquandt also said that there is talk of a new golf team, swim team, or clay shooting team to be hosted at either Florissant Valley or Forest Park.
On top of that, the college’s new eSports facilities will be having a ribbon-cutting event on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at their home base in the South County campus off Meramec Bottom Road. That event takes place as part of an Open House event on the campus that lasts from 3pm to 6pm.
As a reminder, all STLCC sports teams are open to join for students no matter what campus they attend classes at.
