*A version of this story that will run in the upcoming edition of the SJU Magazine incorrectly stated when the new clubhouse is expected to be ready

By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Members of the Saint John's University varsity and junior varsity baseball team will soon have a spacious clubhouse to call home.
 
The facility – which will be located on-site at Becker Park – will feature space for 60 lockers, showers, a training room, laundry facilities, a recruiting room and a rooftop deck that can be used for viewing baseball games, as well as for tailgating prior to football games in the fall. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for April and the building itself is expected to be completed by January of 2024.
 
The clubhouse is being made possible thanks to the very generous support of Johnnie baseball alumni, parents and friends. Thanks to an exceptional leadership gift from Scott '77 and Julie Becker and their family, Becker Park, which opened in 2013, features a state-of-the-art turf field (Haugen Field) and a beautiful grandstand and press box. In 2022, a video scoreboard was added.  
 
The new clubhouse will help solve a significant share of the locker room shortage challenges in Warner Palaestra, which is located up the hill and across the road from Becker Park.
 
"Right now, we really don't have a home," said Jerry Haugen '76, who is in his 46th season as the head baseball coach at SJU this spring. "Our lockers are in the Palaestra, and especially during the five-and-a-half weeks of fall practice, we're squeezing into any spots available to us. During the spring, we take up half the football locker room. But this will give us a place we can call our own."
 
The facility will be located along the left field line home dugout and bullpen. A main entrance will open to the west, while an opposite dugout entrance will allow players and coaches direct access to the field. 
 
"The objective is to create the best Division III baseball experience in the country, and to provide the facilities that make that possible," said John Young '83, the associate vice president for institutional advancement at SJU. "Our goal is to win national championships." "The clubhouse project enables us to continue to have a roster of 55-plus baseball players. That helps significantly with our overall student-enrollment focus."
 
Haugen can't wait for the facility to be completed.
 
"It's going to be awesome," he said with a smile. "There are so many great amenities that will be part of this project. But the piece that will really deliver the 'Wow!' factor will be the locker room. These will be big-time lockers. They're going to make a great impression when we show them to recruits."
 
Haugen said neither the project – nor the entire baseball complex itself – would have been possible were it not for the generosity of the Becker family. Scott was a teammate of Haugen's in football and baseball at SJU in the mid-1970s and is now in his seventh season as a volunteer assistant on his staff.
 
Becker is also a founder of Northstar Capital, a leading private equity firm based in Minneapolis.
 
"Scott and I were teammates and we've been friends forever," Haugen said. "He's been such an incredible ambassador for us over the years – all of the time he's given to our program and the school has been extraordinary."
 
"There's no way we can ever thank him and his family enough."