From Bill Vilona: 
Four weeks from Friday, the official start of the Blue Wahoos season happens.
But we’ve got a lot going on at the ballpark before Opening Day of the Southern League season. There will be 24 baseball games and five events in the next 27 days.
It’s our version of March Madness at the ballpark. For that reason, I wanted to provide some insight.
The first game of 2024 is actually a high school doubleheader on Thursday featuring Pace, Tate and two Bay County schools, Panama City-Arnold and Paxton. On Thursday, Pace plays Paxton at 4 p.m., followed by Tate vs. Arnold at 7 p.m. On Friday, the teams flip opponents at the same times. Tickets for the games are $8.
“I think the kids always say that it’s cool to play in a professional ballpark and with the artificial turf… it’s just unique in its own way… but just the setting and the backdrop and everything about it,” said Tate’s first year-coach Karl King. “I think it’s a cool experience to have at this level.”
Blue Wahoos Challenge
On Saturday, the fifth annual Blue Wahoos Challenge begins with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater hosting eight other teams from six states in a nine-day period. This event has been an impactful addition to the Blue Wahoos events calendar.
Wisconsin-Whitewater, an NCAA Division III baseball program, will play other Division III teams each day through March 17. The team’s coach, John Vodenlich, was inducted January 5 in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame for he has done at Whitewater and for Division III baseball.
The ABCA Hall of Fame class this year includes former Alabama head coach Jim Wells, former Miami Hurricanes coach Jim Morris and Georgia Tech’s Danny Hall among the 10-member class. These are legendary coaches. The association began in 1945 and being in the ABCA Hall of Fame is the most prestigious honor bestowed upon a college coach.
Vodenlich has begun his 21st season at Whitewater. His current career record is 714-257-1. It is one of the highest winning percentages among NCAA Division III head coaches.
Vodenlich is also a outgoing, welcoming person, so if you happen to stop by the ballpark to take in a game, you may get the chance to meet him.
Wisconsin-Whitewater is the alma mater of Blue Wahoos team owners Quint and Rishy Studer. They did not know each other while going to college, but they both hold the university in the closest place in their hearts.
Quint has said many times in his various books that Wisconsin-Whitewater took a chance on him when accepting his application despite less than stellar grades in high school. The school gave him an opportunity. He has never forgotten that. And this Blue Wahoos Challenge is a way for the Studers to give back.
“Us coming down here and this tournament is all really because Quint Studer wanted to make it happen,” said Vodenlich, whose team is 2-2 and ranked No. 22 in Division III after a four-game split against No. 19 Trinity University last week in San Antonio, Texas. “And obviously the work and effort of the Blue Wahoos staff should not be taken lightly either.
“Because whether we are there playing or not, the staff is working and just not working maybe as hard as they are now with us being there.
“So it requires extra effort by the Blue Wahoos staff to make this a reality And it all stems from Quint saying, why don’t we do this? And let’s bring people into this area.
“And we’ve accomplished it four years in a row. And I am proud to say we have helped the economy there and things are definitely meeting expectations.”
The teams part of this tournament are Wisconsin-Platteville, Carroll University from Wisconsin, Birmingham-Southern, Huntingdon College from Montgomery, Ala., Lyon College (Arkansas), Sewanee College (Tennessee), McMurry College (Abilene, Texas), and the University of Chicago (Illinois).
The games will be late-morning through early evening beginning in full swing on Sunday. Admission is $10 for the day, giving fans the ability to enter and re-enter the ballpark. Some days there will be as many as four games played.
Some of these teams bring as many as 40 players and have a junior varsity team that plays as part of the nine-day tournament. Between the players, coaches, support personnel, families and friends, it brings hundreds of people to Pensacola and they stay in area hotels and eat at local restaurants.
“The net impact is easily between $100,000 and $200,000 dollars, because you also have the parents and general fans coming to Pensacola,” Vodenlich said. “While we may not be drawing thousands at the games, let’s say a team brings say 100 parents… They are all staying somewhere.
“They are buying food and going to restaurants. They are renting vehicles from the airport. And that was always the plan when we started this in 2019. That was always Quint’s vision of building the community.”
Because of the generosity and the Blue Wahoos ability to host the event, it enables many of the schools from the upper Midwest to play baseball when they could not do it otherwise on their campus fields.
It’s a spring training of sorts for some of these teams before they can get into their own schedules in late March when weather starts to warm.
“What Quint does for this event every year impacts so many different groups,” said Shannon Hannah, the Blue Wahoos events sales manager who arranges the tournament with Vodenlich. “You have the players who are able to practice here and play here and get this experience that they weren’t otherwise get.
“Teams are able to come down and enjoy the beach and get that family experience. And not only getting the experience on the field, but they are also getting memories with their teammates and families that are here. .
“What an experience for these players that Quint is offering them. It’s a chance to come at very reduced cost as a thank-you for all that Whitewater has done for Quint. He has a reception for every single team. What a way to network and meet each other and just meet each other at the ballpark. And show off what we have.”
When the final game is played March 17, then more baseball will be staged. The UWF Argos will play at game on March 19 against Georgia Southwestern. There will be another high school game in March and two more in early April after the Blue Wahoos first homestand.
Baseball Bash
There will also be fun events like the “Ballpark Bash” on March 24 to benefit the Early Brain Learning program that Quint and Rishy Studer have been so passionate to get behind. That will allow the community to come to the ballpark for a $5 entrance and have a fun day with games on the field and food on the concourse and music playing.
“I think it’s definitely the biggest March that we’ve ever had,” said Hannah, who arranges and manages all of the stadium events aside from Blue Wahoos baseball. “We are doing almost half of a Blue Wahoos baseball season with the number of college and high school baseball games we will play between now and the early part of April.
“That speaks to the facility that we have.”
— Next week’s Season-Ticket Insider will take a deeper dive into players who may be coming here for the start of the Blue Wahoos season. We won’t know the full roster until March 30 when the team arrives here before Easter Sunday. There will be a workout at the stadium on April 1 before the two exhibition games against the Monterrey Sultanes from Monterrey, Mexico.
— Blue Wahoos broadcaster Erik Bremer was able to broadcast two Miami Marlins spring training games last Friday and Saturday. One of those featured phenom pitcher Eury Perez, who will be part of the Marlins starting rotation.
Featured Photo by Savannah Rohleder on Unsplash
