The most historic sports facility within the main footprint University of Dayton campus is The Fieldhouse, now known as the Frericks Center. Here, the birth of Flyer basketball started under the guidance of coaching legends Tom Blackburn and his player/successor Don Donoher.

Unsurpassed in its coziness and intimidating confines, The Fieldhouse made the Flyers nearly unbeatable, posting a 256-33 record over 19 seasons. No less cozy and nearly equal in tradition is Baujan Field, the former home of the UD football. Named after former coach and College Football Hall of Famer Harry Baujan, many alums from yesteryear recall the days of 10,000 fans packing the football stadium for a game or Homecoming weekend. Ever since UD took a step back from Division IA football however (or FBS), Baujan Field has been the exclusive home to another kind of futbol — the UD men’s and women’s soccer programs.

Nestled on three sides by the Physical Activities Building, Music Building, and towering St. Joseph’s Hall, Baujan Field sits in the heart of campus and makes for one of the most picturesque college soccer venues in the Midwest. The Flyer programs have leveraged the friendly confines to their advantage, winning an unprecedented collection of A10 regular season titles, tournament titles, and NCAA Tournament bids.

THE SPORT THAT CHANGED THE CULTURE

Let’s rewind 12 years and sketch the UD athletics landscape. The year is 1999 and beyond the slow but methodical resurrection of UD men’s basketball under Oliver Purnell, UD athletics was largely under the radar. While in relative obscurity, Flyer volleyball and women’s soccer were quietly among the league’s top teams and had a history of success going back almost two decades. Still, no UD sport beyond men’s basketball had ever qualified for the Division IA NCAA Tournament.

A year prior, former Wisconsin men’s head soccer Coach Jim Launder had taken over a UD soccer program in relative disarray. Having won a national title in Madison just a few years prior, Launder’s job was to rebuild UD’s men’s program into a proven winner like the women. He did that and in 1998 orchestrated UD’s march into the NCAA play-in game – a match UD lost.

A year later, UD women’s soccer head soccer coach Mike Tucker officially broke the glass ceiling, putting the Flyers in the NCAA main draw for the first time in program history – and a first for any UD Olympic sport. After recruiting all of the prep stars from a nationally-ranked Alter HS team including Missy Showtime Gregg, Liz Brown, and Linsdey Whitehead, the Flyers had the firepower to not only win in the postseason but advance beyond the first round.

That seminal moment changed UD Olympic sports for good. Since that time the women’s soccer program has won 10 regular season titles, seven tourney titles, and made 7 NCAA bids – including three appearances in the second round and one Sweet Sixteen. The men’s soccer program earned its first NCAA bid in 1999. The success on the grass translated on the volleyball court as well. The UD volleyball program is now an NCAA regular and Top-25 contender nearly every season. The uptick in Flyer athletics as a broad-based success all started at Baujan Field however. Since that time, UD athletics developed a competitive strategy to outline soccer and volleyball as programs capable of being competitive at the highest national level. They are considered Tier-1 sports – programs not hindered by geography or conference affiliation and in realistic position to compete and win against the Big Dogs.

THE PAST HAS PASSED

Over a decade ago, Baujan Field was long on tradition and ambiance, but low on amenities and comparative quality to other facilities at other institutions. In the mid 1990s, UD administrators took the first steps to upgrade Baujan Field with more permanent-looking bleachers on the south side – though still the kind looking a bit sophomoric. In 2000, UD re-graded the empty hillside into European terrace seating. The project cost an estimated $500,000 and gave UD fans a unique vantage point to watch matches.

In 2003, UD installed a new state-of-the-art hybrid turf that grows real grass though a sand, rock, and mesh base. Considering cutting-edge at the time, the cost rivaled the European terrace but still plays as one of the finest pitches in the league.

Since 2003 however, attention to Baujan Field was put aside while UD concentrated on other Olympic sports also desperate for some upgrades. Among those, baseball received Time Warner Cable Stadium, UD softball got a new facility, and the volleyball program asked for a received upgrades to the venerable Frericks Center. All of these needs were legitimate and necessary, but it’s time once again to return to where the renaissance started. In 2011, Baujan Field is no longer best in breed. It is falling behind to other programs with far less success, far less potential, and far less collateral that earned the right to a top-flight facility. Eight years of static and silence have allowed other universities to catch up and pass Dayton by. What was once a recruiting tool is now just another “oh by the way”. UD soccer has earned the right to far better.

The arms race is real but it’s one area where private universities like Dayton can go head-to-head with other schools, especially those that have the Governor paying the bills. They are one-time expenses with long-term value. The Flyers cannot easily change their geography of conference affiliation to gain a competitive advantage, but matching BCS schools with top-shelf facilities can close the gap to make those recruiting battles fierce.

Baujan Field’s long-in-the-tooth posture is more readily apparent in 2011 as more schools stream their sports online. The Bo’ doesn’t measure up like it did 10 years ago and in many cases, doesn’t measure up at all – even to moribund programs with no business sporting a soccer Taj Majal. Most competing facilities now have permanent concessions, press boxes, and restrooms. Some programs are now playing in facilities that rival MLS squads. Look no further than Creighton’s $30M facility, or the facilities at Midwest foes Notre Dame, Indiana, Ohio State, Louisville, or Akron. Dayton can be as good as any of those programs if the tools are in place.

UD drew up plans about 7-8 years ago for a full-featured stadium at Baujan Field that included permanent bricked grandstands on the south side, bricked entry gates, permanent concessions, locker rooms, officials rooms, and a legitimate press box befitting NCAA tournament programs. Those plans must be revisited.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

At present, Baujan Field’s lighting is barely adequate for night games and useless so for night photography. The ear-cringing PA system may be the same one that called first downs for UD football 40 years ago. It’s poorly located directly above the terrace and too loud on one side while too weak for the other. Speakers should be replaced and relocated.

The temporary pop-tent structure currently employed as the media press box is amateur night – and I don’t say this for my own selfish attempt to gain a heated desk for those cold October matches. The PA announcer, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications Krystal Warren, and others in charge of the show are working with the hand dealt, but it makes their job harder. The Flyers need a permanent press box with permanent audio-visual equipment so the personnel can do their job while folks like myself can also do mine. Having attended last year’s NCAA Second Round match at OSU’s Jesse Owens Stadium, the sound mixer alone inside the JOS press box probably cost as much as UD’s yearly travel budget for both soccer programs. But the audio and clarity and professional choreography to everything done by OSU personnel was readily apparent. UD has competent people; they need the same tools everyone else has.

The two sets of steel bleachers on the south side of Baujan Field should be replaced by a permanent bricked stadium side, covered in typical European style with a roofed overhang, chairbacks or bleacher backs, and permanent restrooms. Permanent locker rooms should be dug underground and located under the stadium grandstand, with step access directly at midfield.

Baujan Field deserves permanent concessions on both the north and south sides, along with permanent sales space for apparel and other goodies.

The UD championship and NCAA tournament boards mounted on the Music Building wall (installed around 2004) are having issues of their own. The 2011 season is underway and three 2010 notables (A10 season title, tourney title, and NCAA bid) are still missing from the UD women’s soccer list — they ran out of room for A10 championships! Whether UD needs to shrink the font, expand the board, or replace the display entirely, let’s get it done.

Last but certainly not least, Baujan Field needs a new scoreboard(s). The current scoreboard pre-dates the NCAA tourney era and is virtually unreadable in daylight to anyone sitting on the north terrace. Do things right and install a large scoreboard with message or matrixing capabilities. Perhaps take a pair of the old UD Arena lite-brite information boards, retrofit them for outdoor use, and install them on each end of the field. Regardless of what’s done, doing something is what’s important.

To summarize, the only thing addressed in the last 10 years is the playing surface. That’s not enough and it clearly shows.

Soccer is called “the beautiful game” and here at UD, it’s played on a field once reserved for football of another kind. Beyond the grace of the game itself, soccer is one of the few sports where a small, private, Catholic university like Dayton can legitimately compete for a College Cup. The sport does not show the same kind of prejudice to weather and geography as does baseball, track, or water polo. Great soccer programs can come from anywhere, and oftentimes from the smaller schools. Programs on the men and women’s side that meet such criteria include Portland, UC-Santa Barbara, Akron, St, John’s, St. Louis, Creighton, Santa Clara, New Mexico, Marquette, UMass, Coastal Carolina, Harvard, Dartmouth, SMU, Hartford, Colorado College, and many others.

Baujan Field can be the Field of Dreams it should, capable of hosting friendlies with national and international squads, training compounds for professional clubs in the offseason, a destination facility for youth camps, club tournaments, and the home of the successful UD soccer programs.

Dayton soccer is doing well, but it could be doing so much better. No two programs at UD deserve more consideration for seeing their facility upgraded to a true national standard that’s the envy of every program that visits – including large, successful BCS schools. Time and again they have proven an ability to succeed with the hand dealt. Now is the time to deal them a fair deck of cards and make Baujan Field is the Taj Mahal of soccer.

Like programs at Akron, UC-Santa Barbara, or Portland, soccer can be a destination sport for the campus and the students. They will embrace the product if the entire product is first class. Look no further than the Dayton Dragons to witness a success story without any on-field achievement. The Flyers need that same commitment to soccer and a unilateral approach to ensure all facets of the programs are done to the highest standard in the country.

UD soccer should be at the head of the line again to see their facility rise to the level of the run of play.