Irvine Valley College baseball coach Kent Madole in front of the right field wall and the remodeled campus baseball field. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Irvine Valley College baseball coach Kent Madole was excited to welcome players in the annual Orange County All-Star Baseball Game to IVC Sunday for a practice.
It’s likely the first time the players have seen the facility since major upgrades were completed within the past three years.
The all-star game, sponsored by the Ryan Lemmon Foundation, is Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Great Park.
Madole believes the improvements will help the program greatly.
“I’m really happy to provide a chance for these guys to get some extra work in. These high school coaches, all the time they give from their own personal lives to not just be here today but also for the event …. is just super impressive, it’s the least that we could do, I could do to make this available,” said Madole, who will be entering his 25th season as head coach of the Lasers. “Players are having a great time.
“It’s a beautiful facility now, it took a long time to get it done, but it’s something to really be proud of. I think a lot of people in the community are still not aware that it’s here because for 24 years, it was just a field and was not a facility. But now it’s a full-blown facility and I think it services the community really well.
“Fans love it, the opposing teams love it, the opposing teams love, it’s easy parking, great restrooms, our concession stand is great and the surface and playability is awesome.”
The improvements include a state of the art inning by inning scoreboard and a new outfield wall including a section that Madole refers to as the “green monster, new netting and improvements in both dugouts.
“Our clubhouse is going in this upcoming year right behind our dugouts so we’re finally going to have a home clubhouse, 50 lockers, two bathrooms, two showers, we toured a whole bunch of different clubhouses from D1’s all the way down, so the layout is beautiful,” Madole said. “This brand new facility has been here for about three years now.”
Since the improvements Madole said word is “slowly getting out. For nearly 20 years, we were behind everybody else in terms of the industry standards for baseball facilities. Thankfully now, we are not only up to speed but I think we’re a little bit ahead of the curve and it’s something we can really be proud of.
“My vision has always been for the players and the assistant coaches to learn how to coach better and to build their resume and for the players, not just IVC people, but for the visitors to have a great experience playing baseball and the spectators, the parents and families to come and watch really good baseball played on a beautiful facility.”
Madole described the Orange Empire Conference, which IVC competes in, as “the best in the state.”
A press box will also be going up.
“It’s half done now. When the clubhouse gets done, we will finish off the press box,” Madole said. “It will be completely enclosed and a beautiful place to run games.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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