Blue Wahoos Stadium A Spring Break Haven For Collegiate Baseball Tournament 

Shortly after their March 20 game, the Carroll University baseball team from Waukesha, Wisconsin walked beyond the right field concourse at Blue Wahoos Stadium for a keepsake memory.

At parents’ urging, players gathered behind the ballpark’s party deck area for a team photo, following an 8-7 victory against Centre College, a school located in Danville, Kentucky.

The backdrop was a Pensacola postcard setting.

Clear blue sky. Shimmering expanse of Pensacola Bay. The Gulf of Mexico in the distance. And a brilliant, late afternoon sun lighting up the entire vista.

“That was pretty sweet,” said Carroll coach Stein Rear. “This whole time has been amazing.”

It became a moment that exemplified a spring break experience for seven NCAA Division III baseball teams, across five states, that have traveled to Pensacola for the Studer’s Blue Wahoos Baseball Challenge.

“It’s special for all these players,” said long-time, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater coach John Vodenlich, who has helped organize and arrange the nine-day, 25-game tournament at Blue Wahoos Stadium, which concludes on Wednesday with Whitewater playing up a level to face the University of West Florida (Division II member) in a 6 p.m. game.

“There are spring training destinations for college teams like ours all over the country, so why not here?” Vodenlich said.

That was part of the conversation Vodenlich had in 2019 with Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer, a Wisconsin-Whitewater graduate, when this event first happened in Pensacola.

It was to be repeated in mid-March 2020.

But a day before Vodenlich’s team was to embark on a plane flight to Pensacola, the initial onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic reached a nationwide impact.

All levels of sports, from high schools to all the major U.S. pro sports leagues, shut down. No one played at that time. The Blue Wahoos entire 2020 season, along with all levels of Minor League Baseball, never operated that year.

“It was a tough deal,” said Vodenlich, whose team is ranked No. 14 in the current NCAA Division III poll. “I was thinking at first, ‘hey let’s just go.’ But (university) of course told us we’re not going. It turned out that was the right decision.

“I had a good friend of mine, who had taken a year’s sabbatical from the Sweden Baseball Academy to spend the (2020) season with us and he got word the airports (across Europe) were going to close down and he left 3 days earlier.

“So he left, then we got shut down and lot happened very quickly. Now, here we are 2 years later.”

A year ago, the event was canceled again due to the ongoing coronavirus. The extended gap has made this year’s tournament more meaningful.

In addition to that aspect, this year’s tournament provides the first set of games played on the new synthetic turf at Blue Wahoos Stadium and new stadium lighting.

“It has been a rough two years across the board for everyone,” said Vodenlich, who has coached at his alma mater for the past 19 years and guided Whitewater to a pair of NCAA Division III baseball championships. “It has been a long go for everybody, and of course, not just athletes, but every single one of us.

“But I know we have all gone through it and hopefully we now have light at the end of the tunnel.”

Having Wisconsin-Whitewater in town carries powerful significance for Quint Studer, whose wife, Rishy, is also a UWW graduate, but the two did not meet in college.

When he was a high school senior from Illinois, Studer applied to many universities. But as he has since chronicled in many of his renown books, only Wisconsin-Whitewater granted acceptance. He had struggled as a high school student and received numerous rejection notices.

Wisconsin-Whitewater gave him a chance. He took full advantage of that opportunity. He has been forever grateful.

“I just now look at it as it’s so neat to have these schools coming here from Wisconsin and other places, staying in our hotels, bringing families, putting money into the community and getting to play at the stadium,” Studer said.

The other teams visiting this year include a third Wisconsin school, Wisconsin-Platteville, along with Grinnell College from Iowa, Rhodes College from Memphis and Birmingham Southern.

UWF is playing its one game in the event against Whitewater, following the same type of schedule as the first tournament in 2019.

The visiting teams stayed at hotels in Pensacola or in rental accommodations on Pensacola Beach. They are eating at area restaurants. They have spent time on the beach. The Studers hosted a buffet meal and reception for families and friends at the stadium’s Hancock-Whitney Club level.

When considering the teams’ traveling group included upwards of 40 players, coaches and support personnel, plus family and friends traveling to see the games, it equates into a sizable economic impact from out of town guests.

The tournament was March 15-24. The schedule featured three to four games daily, including games pairing each team’s non-starters to get those players some game experience.

“In other parts of Florida, this the model for bringing commerce to their areas,” Vodenlich said. “For many years, we traveled around the Lakeland, Auburndale, Davenport areas playing baseball all the time. It is big business in those communities in March.

“I’m absolutely okay putting in the extra effort to arrange this and get the teams here, because I know what Quint wants. He’s about bringing people to Pensacola. If our main objective is to get people to Pensacola, we have accomplished that.”

Shannon Reeves, event sales manager for the Studer Family of Companies, has worked the past year with Vodenlich to put together the nine-day baseball experience.

She said next year’s tournament planning will begin immediately following the final game this year.

“Quint is always giving back to this community and this tournament is another way,” Reeves said. “It goes to show the level of generosity and the pride he has in Pensacola . We are excited to have this here.

“We get to show off our space to someone super important to Quint. That’s such an honor for us as well. This is another reminder that we live in Pensacola, Florida. And what a treasure this is. We have people and teams from five states that want to come down and play baseball here and it’s such an honor for us as well.”

PARTICIPATING TEAMS

Birmingham-Southern College Panthers (Birmingham, Alabama)

Centre College Colonels (Danville, Kentucky)

Carroll University Pioneers (Waukesha, Wisconsin)

Grinnell College Pioneers (Grinnell, Iowa)

Rhodes College Lynx (Memphis, Tennessee)

University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers (Platteville, Wisconsin)

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks (Whitewater, Wisconsin)

University of West Florida Argos (1 game)

WANT TO WATCH?

WHAT: Final Day Of Studer’s Blue Wahoos Baseball Challenge

WHEN: Wednesday March 23

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium

ADMISSION: $10 day pass (good for re-entry all games).

WEDNESDAY GAMES: Grinnell (Iowa) College vs. Centre (KY.) College 10:00 a.m.; Wisconsin-Whitewater vs. Grinnell (reserves) 1:30 p.n. Wisconsin-Whitewater vs. UWF Argos (6 p.m.).

INFO: www.bluewahoos.com