SCRANTON, Pa. — It's been 25 years since Lycoming College has added an inter-collegiate athletic sports program to the school.
Back in 1997, it was Men's and Women's Lacrosse that was added.
Now, they re-introduce field hockey and baseball to the college for the 2022-2023 academic year.
President Kent Trachte made the announcement.
"Being able to enhance or expand the number of athletic programs that we have and bring in more young men and women into campus to take advantage of both our curriculum and the learning that takes place through athletics is very exciting," said Kent.
"When you look at it, baseball has firm roots in Lycoming County. There is a long and distinguished history through minor league baseball at Bowman Field. Field Hockey also has very strong roots in Central Pennsylvania with two of the best nationally recognized programs a little bit more than 40 minutes in each direction of us at Lock Haven and Bloomsburg," said Mike Clark, Director of Athletics at Lycoming College.
Field Hockey will play at the Shangraw Complex. A $3,000,000 dollar investment project is underway that includes lights, expanded locker rooms, and new stadium seating. Baseball is partnering with the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce for the construction of a new field near Penn College on the south end of Rose Street. Adding those sports rounds out Lycoming MAC Freedom status to full membership once they begin competition.
"The lights already went up, which is part of that. The turf was part of that, but now what we are doing is finalizing details on a smaller stadium," added Mike.
Well, the #1 priority for Mike Clark now is finding coaches. There is a national search underway for the next Warrior coach in field hockey and baseball.
"Anytime that there are job openings, coaches are an aggressive you know determined group, and I would expect that we will hear from a number of candidates probably even before the job is posted," again said Mike.
