With less than eight months before their inaugural season begins, the University of Memphis softball team is still in search of a temporary home.
A new facility at South Campus should be in place for 2007, but play begins next spring, leaving head coach Windy Thees with the unenviable task of finding her team a place to play.
"I just go from field to field to see if I want to rent them out," Thees said. "There are a lot of fields... It's just a matter of getting out and comparing them."
Associate Athletic Director Lynn Parkes said there have been "preliminary talks" to find a facility and said she expects "to probably get moving on that in the next month."
Thees, who will make a recommendation on her findings to the athletic department, isn't ruling out any part of the greater Memphis area. She mentioned Germantown, Collierville, Southaven and Bartlett as some possibilities.
Wherever the Tigers take to the field in their first season, it will be a short-term solution.
A new park, which Parkes estimates will cost $1.5 million, is in the final stages of design.
"We have some initial drawings, we're pretty comfortable with where we are with that," Parkes said. "There are some minor changes that will require us to go back through the state."
Parkes said the design changes should be resolved sometime in July. Bidding on construction will follow shortly after, with construction beginning at the South Campus site in late fall.
"Any time you build something of this magnitude, it's a lengthy process," Parkes said.
"We would have loved to have all of this in place and be ready for a team to walk on campus... but we're certainly not the first program to have started with a temporary facility."
Those comments were directed toward the construction process, but they could easily be transferred to the development of the softball program in general.
The new facility will cap a process that began in 1995, when softball was first discussed as a possible varsity sport at The U of M. The team was originally slated to start competition in 1999. That date was later moved to 2004, but budgetary constraints forced the delays.
The 2006 squad has 14 commitments with a possibility of adding one to two more. Currently the roster features players from eight states, including three from California and two from Arizona.
"I've logged a lot of miles," Thees said.
Coach and team will add a few more numbers to the odometer when the season starts on Feb. 11, but Thees said the new park will be worth the wait.
"I'm so excited for it," Thees said. "It's going to be amazing."
