Valparaiso University Softball Camps

Facilities/Directions

The Valparaiso University Softball Clinic will be held at the Athletics Recreation Center, located next to the football stadium on Union St. and University Park Drive.
 

Athletic Recreation Center

In 1978-1979, a Valparaiso University student survey circulated which identified an overwhelming student-felt need for improved recreational facilities on campus. This was the birth of the Athletics-Recreation Center (ARC). This survey was followed in 1979 by a comprehensive University-wide study by the Council on University Priorities and Planning.

Subsequently, a program of needs was developed by a campus committee. The Valpo Board of Directors then designated the ARC as a priority capital component of Valparaiso University, thus a national comprehensive effort to raise $50 million in support of the University. Ground was broken for the ARC on April 23, 1983.

The $7.25 million Athletics-Recreation Center added 84,000 square feet of new construction to the existing facility, thereby providing at one site a complex of over 142,000 square feet for physical education, athletics, and recreational activities.

The new building was designed with primary emphasis on supplementing the already existing recreational areas. It contains: seven playing floors for basketball and volleyball; a free play area for recreational basketball, volleyball, and other activities; a nine-lap per mile running track; six racquetball/handball courts; classrooms and lounges; and a coed training room.

The ARC arena currently has 5,000 seats and will accommodate 6,000. The building was designed so that expansion will permit its seating capacity to increase approximately 10,000. The arena is complemented by an attractive entrance, lobbies, ticket offices, and permanent display cases.

Since the original completion of the ARC, renovation of the existing facility has provided upgraded facilities for all Valpo students and faculty, including a new weight room, classrooms, locker rooms, and staff offices.

A new cardiovascular room for students was constructed during 2005, and the Mosak Performance Center was created as a weight room facility for varsity athletes.

On Sunday afternoon, December 9, 1984 Notre Dame's Fighting Irish visited Valparaiso and provided the opposition for the ARC's dedication game in men’s basketball. The ARC was also the site of Valpo's dramatic upset of then 19th-ranked Notre Dame in 1988, played in front of 4,913 overjoyed fans.

The 1984-1985 season also marked the beginning for the women’s basketball team to compete in the ARC. The volleyball team then began play during the 1985 season.

The largest crowd in ARC history witnessed a men’s basketball game between the Crusaders and the visiting Purdue Boilermakers on November 16, 2002. Valpo packed 5,425 fans into the seats of the ARC.

The ARC has hosted several postseason sporting events, including the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament for both men’s and women’s basketball as well as volleyball.