ETBU Athletics Facilities

ORNELAS STADIUM/FOOTBALL COMPLEX

ETBU's football stadium was completed in enough time to welcome the university's first football team in a half-century in the fall of 2000. In fact, the Tigers have played all but one home game in the confines of their cozy, beautiful home, as the facility officially opened on Oct. 7, 2000, when ETBU dropped a heartbreaking 34-28 loss in overtime to Austin College. The facility sits behind the football program's renovated field house, the old Carlile-Howell Building, which houses locker rooms, offices, a state-of-the-art training room as well as a renovated weight room. The stadium was made possible with a gift from the Ornelas family of Tyler, Texas. Lights were added to the stadium and practice field in 2009, and a new weight room/locker room facility is currently under construction on the southwest corner of the stadium. The new building is scheduled to be completed in time for the start of the 2011 season.

ORNELAS GYMNASIUM/DEAN HEALTHPLEX

Ornelas Gymnasium, a gift from the Ornelas family of Tyler, was built in 1995 and replaced Keys Gymnasium as the home to ETBU basketball. Although Keys still stands as an intramural facility, it is on the east end of the complex that now includes Ornelas Gym on the west side and Dean Healthplex in the middle. Dean Healthplex was also constructed in 1995. Built with a gift from Ben and Mary Dean, the healthplex houses state-of-the-art equipment for physical fitness such as treadmills, stationary bicycles, stairmasters and both free and machine weightlifting stations. Dean Healthplex also has four racquetball courts. All healthplex facilities are free and open to ETBU faculty, staff and students. The complex also includes offices for athletic director, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball coaches, as well as kinesiology faculty.

CORNISH FIELD

ETBU's soccer field, which opened in 2002, was christened Cornish Field in 2007 following a gift for facility upgrade from Harold and Joyce Cornish of Marshall. The lighted field, which began construction in 2000 and was open and ready for play to start the 2002 season, sits on the extreme northern edge of the ETBU campus adjacent to Ornelas Stadium, the Tigers' football facility. The improvement to the facility included installation of permanent bleachers, concrete walkways, a retaining wall that will allow fans to bring their own lawn chairs and enjoy the games, and a wrought iron decorative fence on the south side of the field as well as updated fencing around the entire field. The entrance is bricked with a decorative archway bearing the name of the donor. Opened in 2002, the facility is accessible by a road -- Baker Boulevard, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Baker -- that runs down the west side of Ornelas Stadium on the north end of campus. The soccer field runs east to west with bleachers to the south side of the field. The north side is used for team benches and scorers table.

TAYLOR FIELD

Taylor Field serves as the home for the 2010 NCAA Division III national championship ETBU softball program. The facility has received several upgrades and facelifts since its original construction prior to the 1998 season, when ETBU fielded its first fastpitch program as a member of the Heart of Texas Conference and then moving to the American Southwest Conference a year later. The facility received its most recent upgrades following the national title run in 2010, including a new covered batting cage area along the first base side where ETBU moved its home dugout for the 2011 season. A new bullpen was also constructed just outside the new batting cage, and a section of the right field fence was removed to make way for a home-run porch, the "Century 21 Tiger Den," for fans to gather and enjoy the game from a different view complete with picnic tables and refreshments throughout the game. New lights were added to the facility prior to the 2009 season. Prior to that, ETBU renovated the Taylor Field press box behind home plate in 2005 into a two-story brick structure with new climate-controlled press area on the second floor. A Tiger locker room and fan restroom comprises the first floor of the press box.

WOODS FIELD

Woods Field has been the home to East Texas Baptist University baseball since the program’s inception in the mid-1960s. The facility has received a number of upgrades over the last few years. The latest of the major upgrades, and the most dramatic, was the installation of lights just prior to the 2008 season that allowed for the first nighttime baseball in the history of the program. The facility has also received more upgrades since 2006, which include a remodeling of the Tiger bullpen, as well as additions and improvements to the outdoor batting cages. In 2005, the old metal backstop and dugouts were torn down and replaced with red brick. The chain-link backstop, which had surrounded home plate for years, was replaced by a dark netting which provides safety while allowing for improved sight lines for fans in the bleachers.