Athletic Director Ron Hannon and Gavilan College athletics got
an early Christmas surprise last week when the college received an
$8,270 grant from the Calpine Gilroy Energy Center as part of its
second annual community grant program.
GILROY – Athletic Director Ron Hannon and Gavilan College athletics got an early Christmas surprise last week when the college received an $8,270 grant from the Calpine Gilroy Energy Center as part of its second annual community grant program.
“Very surprising. Very appreciative,” Hannon said. “We didn’t know about the grant until real late so this is kind of a nice surprise that companies like Calpine are helping the community out.”
Gavilan – which received the largest of the 14 grants distributed by Calpine – will use the funds to revamp its softball field and surrounding area. Construction has already begun on new dugouts as well as a new storage facility adjacent to the field.
“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board. This was really unexpected. It’s a nice surprise. We’ll have to go back and discuss things again,” Hannon said. “We were hoping for something, but definitely not $8,000. We’ll be able to do a lot of things to help out the softball program.”
Some other possible enhancements being considered for the softball field are replacing the infield with red clay soil instead of the granite-style surface, installing batting cages and putting up a portable outfield fence.
“I’m guessing the committee thought this grant would not only benefit our program but would also impact a lot of people in the community,” Hannon said. “It’s a multi-purpose-type grant with a wide range of benefits for a lot of different people.”
Hannon, who wrote the grant proposal and turned it in at the end of October, has been steadily rebuilding Gavilan athletics since he was brought on at the beginning of the school year. The softball program is now in its second year of return after being lost in 2000.
“The first thing (this grant does) is it tells our current student-athletes that, hey, we care about you and we’re committed to building a quality program,” Hannon said. “It lets them know that we’re not a second-rate program. We’re committed to turning this around.”
