‘Kansas State is serious about baseball’: Wildcats make statement with stadium upgrade
As Pete Hughes stares out his office window and looks upon the Kansas State baseball field at newly renovated Tointon Family Stadium, he can’t help but chuckle at how much his working space has changed during his short time with the Wildcats.
When Hughes was hired as K-State baseball coach in June 2018, his office was in the basement and water leaked from the ceiling whenever it rained. The team’s locker room and lounge weren’t much nicer. Hughes didn’t like spending time in those areas. He tried to avoid them all costs with recruits and did his best to sell them on the idea of a new facility.
Now that it’s here, he doesn’t want to leave. Recruits are welcome day and night. One look at his new office, which is located on the top floor of the stadium and feels like a spacious living room with a view, left him overflowing with pride.
“It shows everybody, at a national level, that Kansas State is serious about baseball,” Hughes said. “That’s why I came here. I am at the last leg of my coaching career and my goal, to this day, is to go to Omaha. I was not going to take a job or get involved with another job that was not going to give me the opportunity to go to Omaha. And these facilities do. It gets us in the hunt with every prospect, at every level. We can get involved with anybody right now.”
K-State’s new and improved baseball home has felt like a shot to the arm for the Bat Cats. Players are showing up earlier for practice and they are staying later, too. The entire team, it seems, wants to spend extra time together, so long as it’s in this state-of-the-art facility.
“There are so many aspects that are here that are absolutely unbelievable. To get to call this place home and work here is almost a dream come true,” K-State pitcher Kasey Ford said. “I know how cliche that sounds, but it’s true. My favorite thing is what it does for the team. Guys love coming in here to work every day. Guys are showing up two hours before practice because they are so anxious to be here. Guys have the get-to mentality instead of the have-to mentality now.”
The upgraded facility features more room and better equipment than K-State’s veteran players are accustomed to. The first thing they see upon entering the complex is a lounge with three massive televisions and plenty of comfortable seating. A group of teammates were there playing intense games of UFC 3 on a PlayStation 4 one evening earlier this week.
Take a turn to the right and you will find a “fueling station” stocked full of healthy snacks and drinks that the team can access at any time. Take a turn to the left and you are inside the team’s training room, complete with two whirlpool tubs and two massage tables. More huge televisions line the wall in there, too.
At this time last year, K-State combined all three of those areas into one awkward room. Now, they have room to roam.
When K-State baseball players aren’t in those areas, you can usually find them in the locker room, which is large enough to house a football team. Every locker features a player’s name and number, plus a safe space for valuables. There’s a ping pong table in the center of the room, which sits directly under a ceiling that looks like a baseball with purple stitches.
“It’s probably double or triple in size,” K-State catcher Chris Ceballos said. “We have new lockers and showers. We have a whole new training facility. We were basically in a 6 by 6 room for our training stuff in the past, so this is helping us a lot.”
Another perk: the baseball team moved its weight room to another building, allowing the Wildcats to maximize multiple spaces.
The stadium upgrades also feature a new video board behind the right field wall, a netted playscape for children behind third base, an expanded concourse and a renovated press box. The project cost $15 million in conjunction with upgrades at K-State’s adjacent soccer stadium.
Hughes took advantage of the construction by redecorating the walls. The first thing players read when they walk through the doors of their new facility is an image of the outside of TD Ameritrade Park, home of the College World Series each summer in Omaha, Nebraska. The stadium is tinted purple. On top of the painting are the words: “Where we play to win, Omahattan, KS.”
Upstairs players walk by the words “academics” and “community” and “Omaha” on their way to Hughes’ office. He wants them to be constantly reminded of what they’re playing for.
His first season in Manhattan ended with a losing record, but he thinks the Wildcats have enough depth and extra talent this year to make a push for the NCAA Tournament as they set to begin the season on Feb. 14 at Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
Players are starting to believe, too. It’s hard not to when you have a new baseball home like this.
“We talk about it all the time,” Ceballos said. “We know what we have. We believe in ourselves. From what I’ve seen, I think we can go a long way.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 1:24 PM.