SENATOBIA - Northwest Mississippi Community College administration, Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, alumni, friends and more came together on August 14 to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the Castle Baseball Complex. Board of Trustees Chair, Cory Uselton, welcomed everyone to campus and to the new facility.
This complex is a groundbreaking new development for the campus and the athletes which practice every day towards being the best they can. This building is named after former Ranger baseball coach and athletic director, Donny Castle. At the event, Castle was in attendance with his wife Ruthie, and their daughters Krista Ritzmann and Stacy Mueller and their families.
Castle worked at Northwest for 19 years as assistant coach before taking over as head coach for 8 years, and also served as athletic director. Castle received numerous accolades over the years including being inducted into Northwest Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. While coaching Northwest, he had 271 wins as head coach, and in 2000 led the baseball team to the MACJC Championship.
Castle was first drafted into the professional baseball world in 1968 to play for the Washington Senators. Afterwards, he would play for the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees organizations.
Before his professional career, Castle attended Coldwater High School where he was a great athlete not only in baseball, but also earned 13 letters across all the sports he played which include football, basketball and baseball. Castle was one of the team members who went to the baseball state championship in 1968.
Castle remarked that this facility is the closest one can get to the "big leagues." He expressed great gratitude to his successor, Coach Mark Carson, all the coaching staff, the college administration and the building team. "It's a heck of a place," said Castle. "We've come a long way."
The $3 million 10,000 square foot facility has hand-crafted lockers decked out with retro decals and a state of the art training facility that allows student athletes to work on their game.
"We have a four-lane hitting and pitching practice area, enclosed and heated for baseball and softball," said Northwest President Dr. Michael J. Heindl. "We have great weight lifting training area, uniform and equipment storage and laundry facilities, a locker room and showers for baseball players and our coaches' offices in this amazing facility."
This facility was built utilizing Northwest's own construction team, construction company Murphy & Sons, and designed by Eley Guild Hardy architectural firm.
To learn more about this facility or other Northwest programs, please visit northwestms.edu.
