News        from ABAC

Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-5056 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE NOVEMBER 22, 2006

SOCCER FIELD GROUNDBREAKING NOVEMBER 30

TIFTON- Soccer balls will literally be falling from the sky when the groundbreaking for the Abraham Baldwin College soccer field takes place on Nov. 30 at 11 a.m. at the ABAC intramural field.

Speakers at the ceremony will include ABAC President David Bridges; ABAC Athletics Director Alan Kramer; Fillies Soccer Coach Jimmy Ballenger; and ABAC Foundation Board of Trustees Chair Ruth Raines.

Public Relations Director Michael Chason said a special part of the ceremony will be soccer balls tumbling down onto the future site of the field from an airborne location.

Fillies’ team members taking part in the groundbreaking will include Leslie Williams, a physical therapy major from Woodbine, Natalie Barber, a pre-med major from Tifton, and Lisa Atkinson, a nursing major from Conyers.

In their first year of existence this season, the Fillies rolled up 10 victories before losing in the play-in game to the state tournament. Because the team had no field on campus, all home games were played at the Tift County Recreation Department’s E.B. Hamilton Complex.

“We can’t wait to have our own field and have the home field advantage,” Ballenger said. “Our great fans won’t have to travel to see our games. They can just walk right out of their apartments.”

Ballenger said the Fillies will play the first game on the new field on Aug. 27, 2007. Besides the intercollegiate soccer field, the project will include an intramural football field, a walking track, and an intramural softball field.

“This project will benefit not only the women’s soccer team, but also the student body,” Kramer said. “After Aug. 1, students will have more options for activities on campus with the addition of the intramural field, and the field will help to recruit new students while retaining our current students.”

Phase one of the soccer field project will cost $1 million, according to Melvin Merrill, ABAC’s Director of Development.

“The project will be funded by the college and the ABAC Foundation,” Merrill said. “It is a public and private venture.”

Merrill said Jones Construction Company of Tifton will build the new complex.

“The first part of phase one will be all of the underground utilities,” Merrill said. “We hope to have all the major work done by Feb. 1 and have the field completed by Aug. 1.”

Merrill said an unpaved parking lot and an irrigation well designed to ultimately accommodate all the athletics fields will be part of the first phase.

Another phase of the project ABAC hopes to include is the connection of the new irrigation well to the already existing fields. “This will allow everything on Perimeter Road and up to the street behind ABAC Place to be together,” Merrill said.

“This will be a phased project over the years,” Merrill said. “We hope to have future phases that include a field house for the soccer fields, seating, amenities such as fencing and shrubs, and lighting for the field, all depending on funding.”

###