STARKVILLE — The revenue generating sports on Mississippi State’s campus have been given their due.
The football program got a new complex in 2013 and is about to get a renovated locker room at Davis Wade Stadium; the basketball programs got the extensive practice facility in the Mize Pavilion in 2011; the baseball team will soon see the fruits of two years of labor and $55 million in the new Dudy Noble Field.
They are not the only ones seeing significant financial backing from the athletic department.
In MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen’s exclusive interview with The Dispatch, he covered some of the projects underway and those coming in the near future. It is projects in all phases that has Cohen viewing his job as a wheel constantly turning; he sees no construction cycles, but constant improvement.
“I don’t see it as a cycle because for something to be cyclical suggests there’s a beginning and an end,” Cohen said. “There is no beginning and there is no end. It just keeps moving forward.”
The most immediate projects are flashy additions for the women’s soccer and volleyball programs, as both will get new video boards. New MSU volleyball coach Julie Darty has bigger plans for Newell-Grissom Building that could come together over the next two seasons.
Taking on those expenditures while completing the renovations of Dudy Noble Field and Davis Wade Stadium could be a tall order for one of the Southeastern Conference’s most modest departments by budget, but Cohen credits the work of Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Financial Officer Jared Benko for making it a reality.
“Our staff gets together and says, ‘Here’s what we want to do, we want to build these things, how do we do it?’ but we have to have a solid financial plan. Thanks to our Bulldog Club and all the other support mechanisms we have, we’ve been able to do things that quite frankly we haven’t been able to do in the past.
With that in place, MSU can finish some projects, get started on others all while planning the next step.
Cohen hopes that immediate future contains an indoor tennis facility.
The men’s tennis team just made a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament and is poised to be a top five team come next season, while the women’s team is riding a four-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances. Yet, it is one of very fewer SEC programs with a dedicated, updated indoor facility. Auburn built a tennis facility, including a 33,314-square foot indoor facility, in 2007; Alabama debuted a $6 million indoor facility in 2012. LSU opened a new tennis facility in 2015 that includes six indoor courts.
At the moment, when MSU teams need to practice indoors, they go to the two indoor courts at McCarthy Gymnasium on campus.
“We’ve had several donors who have indicated they want to help,” Cohen said on progress toward building an indoor. “It’s one of those projects that’s not cheap, but it’s a project you feel is necessary because of the level of men’s and women’s tennis at Mississippi State, the great history and tradition of that.
“We’re planning to do it; I don’t want to tie myself down to a groundbreaking, but I think we’re much closer to it now than we were a year ago.”
As Cohen mentioned, the department has been working on making an indoor facility a reality for well over a year, but he couldn’t help but notice the attention brought to the programs after the men’s team won the SEC tournament and its overall climb to one of the nation’s strongest programs at the moment.
“One of the many things I love about Mississippi State is that, we’re all in the Mississippi State family, but there really are fans of each one of the programs,” Cohen said. “I’ll have Mississippi State families or alumni reach out and say, ‘I really want you to pay attention to this because they’re doing a great job and it’s important to me.’
“Tennis is one of those sports, and we’ve had fans reach out to say they’re doing a really good job. I love that, because I completely understand. I really got caught up in our tennis program.”
In the event an indoor tennis facility comes soon, that would give every sport on campus a modern renovation after including the 2016 expansion of Nusz Park (softball), the new soccer clubhouse in 2016, the grandstand addition to the Mike Sanders Track Complex in 2013 and the new MSU Golf Practice Facility at Old Waverly Golf Club in 2014.
Still, the work is never done.
“We’re going to do work on Humphrey Coliseum, we’re going to do work on the south end zone,” Cohen said. “You don’t just build something and say, ‘Ok, it’s done,’ and walk away from it. There’s other stuff you have to consider.
“This week, we’ll have a meeting about the future of Humphrey Coliseum. We’ve already had renderings, we’ve already engaged architects, the process began a long time ago.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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