LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada State University’s flag football team wrapped its first season undefeated, and its track team stands as the only men’s program in the state. But coaches warn everything is on the line if they can’t raise the money for a real athletic facility.
A 53-foot Amazon shipping container serves as the athletic office for the director and coaches while also functioning as a weight room for more than 50 collegiate athletes, all training and conditioning in one cramped space.
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Coaches say that if the program is going to keep growing, it needs a true on-campus facility. The land is available, and the vision is ready, but without funding, it doesn’t get built.
Campus has space but lacks resources
Nevada State University’s campus sits at the foot of the mountains. With more than 500 acres, only about 60 have been developed.
“We have the property. We don’t have the resources to do it yet,” said Roy Sessions, track and field coach.
The athletic program is unique in Nevada — the only men’s track and field program in the state and home to a women’s flag football team now gaining national attention.
Athletes are traveling across town to practice on borrowed fields and squeezing into a single weight room.
“Our weights start at 5 a.m. We have to, the girls that are on campus, we drive across town to Game Changers Sports Academy,” said Brandon Pappillion, women’s flag football coach. “From school, the weightlifting facility is about 25 minutes away.”
Program expansion adds urgency
Coaches say the time to build is now. Flag football has been recognized as an NCAA sport, and next year, a women’s track and field team will be added, meaning even more athletes.
“It would be great if we had our own field and track, something we can call ours,” said Lola Randolph, a junior on the flag football team. She transferred from a larger university with its own facilities, choosing Nevada State for the coaching staff.
Sessions said the lack of resources threatens recruitment.
“My kids could go anywhere in the country… but they’ve chosen to stay here. How long can I hold on to that if I don’t have resources?” he said.
Coaches say building a track and field complex would cost about $10 million.
“I would like to be able to come back and see that there are facilities way bigger, that we have a field over available,” said Diego Avelar-Avila, a student athlete.
Donations can be made through the Nevada State University Foundation online, with gifts directed to men’s track and field or women’s flag football.
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