Misericordia University is off and running with their 19 million dollar renovation project. Multi-purpose Mangelsdorf Field received a $750,000 upgrade to its turf and track. Along with a new $7 million dollar residence hall another $5 million went into infrastructure, and the $4.1 million dollar John and Mary Metz field house is in the final stage of completion, and for the first time in school history football arrives in the fall.
"It's a little bit surreal the last two years it's been planning, planning, planning and to finally be at the point where we have our student athletes our football players coming in next Saturday August 11th and we're finally going to see some football activity it's hard to believe that it's here. We're glad that it's here. It's exciting! It's time to get down to business," said Dave Martin the Director of Athletics.
Right now it's the small little things they're worried about here at Misericordia University before the September 15th home opener against Widener. Equipment needs to be put into the weight room, the training facility needs to be set-up and they need to deal with parking for the thousands of fans who will flock here to the back mountain in the fall to watch those cougars.
"It's the detail stuff now on the field house. We're waiting on athletic training equipment to come in. We are waiting on some washers and dryers in the equipment room. That stuff has to get here by next Saturday because that's when we begin to crank it up at practice," added Martin.
The soccer hot spot is at the "Mac" McGeehan practice field. $2.1 million made this possible.
"Oh! I love it! I live right down the street so instead of playing in my back yard I'm playing in this beautiful turf field," said Eric Cannon from Dallas.
"It's definitely growing since I've been here. I've seen it develop. It's just amazing where they've come and like Cannon said we're able to come here and play have this beautiful for us to play with. It's great we really appreciate it," said Brian Brown from Dallas.
The move to the Middle Atlantic Conference several years ago made scheduling football easier, now the scheduled home opener is more of a reality than a dream.