Catawba press release
SALISBURY — Catawba College will hold a dedication ceremony during
homecoming weekend, Oct. 25-27, to celebrate the installation of lights at the Whitley Field, home for the women’s softball team.

The dedication event will be held Friday, Oct. 25, at 6 p.m., at the softball
field.

The lights were funded through the current MIND BODY SOUL Campaign for Growth and installed during the summer. The campaign raised $235,523 to fund the lights.

The lighted field allows Catawba to host evening games, instead of afternoon games, where student athletes had to miss class in order to compete. Also, working parents could not attend, nor other students with afternoon classes.

Catawba will now have an opportunity to rent the lighted field for community evening activities as well.

“With so many classes, labs and clinicals held in the afternoons, the lights will give us a huge advantage to be able to practice with our entire team,” said Mandy Morgan, head softball coach and senior women’s administrator and SAAC advisor. “When we can, we are trying to play in the evenings. Obviously, weather is a factor, but evening games give parents and the community a chance to come to more games.”

Larry Leckonby, the college’s director of athletics, agreed, saying that the lights “allow us to minimize missed class time, provide more opportunity for spectators to attend and host additional community events in the evenings and on weekends.”

The Catawba softball season runs from January through April. There are also a practice schedule during the fall semester.

Catawba has won the South Atlantic Conference softball championship twice — in 2015 and 2016.