W&L’s quest to field a varsity softball team

Published by hunterj24 on April 12, 2022

By Jack Hunter

LEXINGTON — Jan Hathorn has been a trailblazer for women’s sports at Washington and Lee University for over 30 years. Hathorn was W&L’s first women’s soccer coach in 1987, two years after the first undergraduate woman matriculated at the University. Two years later, she became the first women’s lacrosse coach, and held both roles simultaneously until 2000.

Now as the Michael F. Walsh Director of Athletics, Hathorn is determined to see the creation of another woman’s sport at W&L: softball.

“I do believe it’s the right thing to do,” Hathorn said. “It’s going to make us all better because it’s going to bring some pretty phenomenal women to this campus.”

The University released a new strategic plan in May 2018 following the arrival of President Will Dudley in January 2017. Building a softball field to be able to create a varsity softball team was one of eight campus initiatives in the plan.

The field will be built on W&L’s back campus next to Cap’n Dick Smith Field, where W&L baseball plays, according to the campus development plan. Hathorn said she expects construction to begin in the fall of 2025. She also expects to hire a coach then with the goal of starting Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play in the spring of 2027.

She said the timeline is not set in stone and could be pushed back because of the complexities that come from starting a program and building a field from scratch, which include raising money to fund the new stadium.

For both Dudley and Hathorn, the main reason to include softball on the strategic plan is to become a more equitable university.

“We have an equal number of male and female teams,” said Dudley, who oversaw the 15-month process of creating the strategic plan. “But because some of the male teams are larger, football in particular is a very large roster, roughly 60% of our athletes our men. So, creating more opportunities for female athletes is a good idea.”

The strategic plan also emphasizes the University’s desire to involve athletics “in recruiting students from all backgrounds to W&L.” Dudley said softball will help the University achieve this goal.

“As we’re seeking to recruit really talented students from every geographic region and demographic background, softball is a really diverse sport,” Dudley said. “So that helps.”

Hathorn said another area to gage equity is within the ODAC. She said the main reason the strategic plan includes the addition of softball, and not another woman’s sport, is because W&L is the only co-ed school in the ODAC to not have a varsity softball program.

“If you’re a school that can provide a sport and you’re the only school in the league that doesn’t have it, that’s where it comes from,” Hathorn said. “We aren’t offering to our students on our campus an equitable opportunity to the rest of the conference.”

Hathorn estimated the cost of funding the new program, which includes the addition of the new stadium, will be around $3 million to $5 million. But she also said that it’s hard to predict what construction costs will be three years from now.

Regardless of what it will cost, W&L’s Office of University Development will have to raise all the money needed for the stadium. Hathorn said she’s confident that they will be able to raise the money.

“At some point, the fundraised money, depending on whether it’s in hand or not, will also help determine the timeline,” Hathorn said. “I have a lot of confidence in our development team.”

Hathorn said a lot of the cost comes from an obligation to build a stadium with similar amenities to W&L’s baseball stadium, which includes lights, an indoor facility, a press box, covered dugouts and bullpens outside of the playing field.

“There’s some amenities to the baseball field that we need to make sure are available on the softball field,” Hathorn said. “And those amenities sometimes are the difference between $1 million dollars and half a million dollars.”

Stadium concourse

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W&L will build its new softball stadium with similar amenities to the adjacent Cap’n Dick Smith Field. Photos by Jack Hunter

Another challenge to the current timeline is a lack of a club softball team at W&L. Hathorn was at W&L when the University sponsored varsity field hockey for the first time in 2000. But she said W&L decided to sponsor the sport because of the thriving club program that existed at the time.

“[The club team] actually had a pretty full squad, played against other schools, their JV teams, club teams,” Hathorn said. “That was a founding piece of information and data that proved that this was something we should offer because there was interest.”

The athletics department wants to begin varsity competition with the softball team after one year of recruiting. Hathorn said having a club team in place before they launch the varsity program would be ideal. A club team would help fill out the inaugural team’s roster while the program brings in more classes of recruits.

Hathorn said a big reason why there’s no club program at W&L is the lack of interest in softball at the University. But senior Sam Carley disagrees. She said including her, there are enough women at the school to field a competitive softball team today. She said the problem lies in the logistics of creating a team with little University support.

“It’s a lot to start a club team, especially a club team with the intention of becoming varsity,” said Carley, who was an assistant coach for Parry McCluer High School’s varsity softball team this fall. “We don’t have a field. We don’t have equipment. We wouldn’t have a coach. All of those things, on top of forming a team that could, within a year, two years, become a varsity sport, that’s a lot to put on students, with limited help from the University.”

Sophomore Tiwaniya Tyler sat down last year with Margaret McClintock, who runs the club sports program at W&L, to discuss forming a club softball team. McClintock said the athletics department was “really excited” to hear about the meeting between the two.

McClintock still has the notes from the meeting pinned to her wall, which included goals to achieve by 2024. Among them included hiring a coach, holding a tournament and playing 7 games between February and May. But like Carley, Tyler’s drive to start the club, fueled by her passion for softball, quickly dwindled because of the logistical nightmare of starting the team.

“I think the ultimate reason why we never got started was the difficulty of finding a coach,” Tyler said in an email. “I don’t plan to restart the program. I’m about to be a junior, and the entire process sounds like a headache that I would rather pass along to a younger student.”

Another obstacle that stands in the way of a club team is the lack of field space. W&L does not have any fields on campus that are suitable for competitive softball play. McClintock said the closest fit, Cap’n Dick Smith Field, is not available for intramural or club use because of the costs of maintaining the field.

Even if it was available, the contrasts between a baseball and softball field are stark. The dimensions of a softball field, ranging from outfield fences to base path lengths, are much shorter. Unlike baseball fields, softball fields feature a flat mound and no grass on the infield.

McClintock said the only viable option is to use a field at the nearby Brewbaker Field Sports Complex. But she said that creates more logistical difficulties.

“Getting the right time, getting students to be transported, all of those things are going to create logistical hurdles for people to get excited and involved,” McClintock said.

Hathorn is adamant that club team or no club team, the University will still sponsor varsity softball. For her, being the first coach of both W&L women’s soccer and lacrosse gives her confidence that the University can launch a competitive team.

“Very much based on that history, I believe W&L will do an excellent job creating this program,” Hathorn said.

Hathorn said Dudley’s decision to include softball in the strategic plan means a lot to her. But she said that’s not what is most important.

“It’s more important to me what it means for our student-athletes and our students on campus than what it means to me,” Hathorn said. “I’m just happy and feel very grateful to have the opportunity to be in a position to bring something like this to the University.”