TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) - "I just look at it as love for Florida State and for our program. It's really cool."
Head coach Lonni Alameda said former Florida State softball coach JoAnne Graf had fought for years for updates to the softball facility at Florida State.
"Coach Graf was amazing. When I was able to take over the reigns, she had been fighting for cages forever, and she didn't get them in her time here, but we were able to get them as a staff. It's a beautiful hitting pavillion that we have here."
It took about 15 months to raise 1.8 million dollars for the shade structure along with other enhancements, and it all came from more than two dozen donors.
"For so many people to come in and be like, "We need shade, we need this, we need that," and then they got together and they made that happen for us. It was a collective effort from a lot of people."
The structure won't just provide shade for fans but also create that stadium atmosphere for coaches and players.
"It's going to be really, really neat, not only for the fans, but for us too, to create that stadium atmosphere. It's a lot bigger than what I thought it would be. It really gives you that feeling of a stadium and then also the noise, the crowd noise is going to be reflective, so it's going to be a good atmosphere for us all."
Florida State opens the season February 7th. For a full schedule, click here: https://seminoles.com/sports/softball/schedule/season/2019-20/
