Transforming Houck- Stadium project will be a boost, Southeast

Southeast Missouri State University's football coaches use a unique approach with prospective recruits regarding Houck Stadium, where the Indians play their home games.

"In recruiting, we take them back there at night, where they can see the field but not the outside of the stadium," head coach Tim Billings said.

That's because the difference between the stadium's inside and outside is like the difference between night and day.

The actual playing surface at Houck is comparable to that of any football program in the country since 2000 after the installation of FieldTurf, an artificial surface that resembles grass. The days of a torn-up, muddy field at Houck are gone.

But Billings and Southeast athletic director Don Kaverman aren't so proud of the stadium itself, which was built in 1930 and has undergone few renovations since then.

"We have the poorest football facility in the Ohio Valley Conference," Kaverman said. "It's really crumbling before our eyes. You can see big chunks that have literally fallen out of the facades."

Kaverman and Billings are hopeful that work scheduled to begin in July to enhance the stadium's exterior facades and landscaping, along with renovating the press box, will help jump-start a football program that has struggled since moving up to Division I-AA in 1991.

Those plans are part of an estimated $3 million, multi-phase project that the university says will help put the stadium and football program on equal footing with the rest of the OVC.

"It's definitely encouraging. It's a start, no question about it," Billings said. "It would make a big difference for everybody, not just for me and the players, but for the fans and the community, to go watch games in a nicer place. When people walk into a stadium, they want to feel first class."

Three years ago, Billings was lured away from successful I-A program Marshall, where he spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach, to try and turn around a Southeast program that had just one winning season since 1991 -- a 7-5 mark in '94 -- and went 13-31 from 1996 through '99.

Billings' first two Southeast teams went 3-8 in 2000 and 4-7 last year. But the Indians were in numerous close games last year with a young team and the consensus is that the Indians' recruiting has improved since Billings arrived.

However, Billings and Kaverman both say that improved facilities are vital for the Indians to recruit on an even level with the rest of the OVC.

"It has really hamstrung our football program in terms of recruiting," Kaverman said. "The stadium is an eyesore, certainly not anything we can recruit to.

"We've made some improvements, like the FieldTurf. But it hasn't happened as quickly as we would like and I feel sorry for coach Billings."

In addition to aging Houck Stadium, Billings said other primary recruiting tools like the locker room and weight room are also not on a par with other OVC schools. Kaverman acknowledged that the locker room at the Rosengarten Complex -- which houses the football offices and is next to the practice facility -- needs to be expanded and the weight room, which is used by most of the school's athletic teams, needs to be renovated.

Kaverman said about $100,000 must be generated through private funding to improve the weight room. He's confident that will happen soon. He said there are also plans to eventually expand the locker room and create more meeting space at the football offices.

"The biggest thing kids look at is the locker room and weight room. That's where they live, but the other stuff is going to help," Billings said. "Where they play, the kids like it to look good, and the fans too. The nicer place you go into, the better you feel."

Billings said -- and Kaverman agreed -- that most of the other sports at Southeast have facilities than rank with any in the OVC.

He hopes to be able to say the same about the football program at some point in the next few years.

"Our goal it to hopefully have as good a football facilities as any in the conference, like most of the other sports here," Billings said. "The bottom line is, in football we're at the bottom of the barrel. Our football facilities are worse than some of the Division II schools in Missouri."

"In recruiting, you're trying to show off your facilities. It's hard to do here right now. My goal is to get on a level playing field with everybody else in the conference."

Said Kaverman, "It's going to have to happen if our football program is going to turn around."

Despite those records the last two seasons, Billings believes he and his coaches have been able to overcome many of their built-in recruiting handicaps.

"The good thing is, we've got a great coaching staff that works hard, a good community, a nice university, a nice town, to help overcome that," Billings said. "We're tying as much as we can. We have to work extra hard. I feel like we've been able to get some good players. As a coaching staff and players, we're doing everything possible to get the football program turned around. That's what I came here to do."

But, Billings said, whenever he and his assistants wage head-to-head recruiting battles against OVC programs like Eastern Kentucky and Murray State -- along with state rival Southwest Missouri State of the Gateway Conference -- they lose out because of facilities.

"Kids don't come out and say it's because of that, but we've gone head to head with Murray, Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Missouri a lot, and every time we offer (a scholarship), they've gotten every kid," Billings said. "All these kids seem to like our coaches, our school, our town, but for some reason, we haven't gotten one kid, and we're talking three years of recruiting."

Linebacker O.J. Turner, a Cape Girardeau native entering his sophomore season, said a refurbished Houck Stadium and other improved facilities would do wonders for the program.

"I think it's a big factor," he said. "It will definitely help us in recruiting and I'm glad to see them getting started on it."

Greg Brune, Southeast's director of athletic development and quarterback for the Indians in the 1960s, said he has no doubt lagging facilities have hindered recruiting on the I-AA level.

"I don't think it hurt us too bad in Division II, but it's held us back in Division I," he said.

Southeast Booster Club member Bill Gosche has been a loyal fan of the Indians for the past decade, attending virtually all home games -- and some road contests -- during that period. He said the unique aspects of Houck Stadium are a plus, but agrees some improvements are in order.

"For us to compete, not only in the OVC but against some other teams we play, they need to upgrade the stadium," Gosche said.

Gosche believes it will be hard to raise the substantial amount of money needed to complete the entire Houck Stadium improvement program until the Indians begin putting more wins together.

Billings agrees that more success would likely help generate donations.

"We have to start winning football games," he said. "It's the old story, what comes first, the chicken or the egg."

Kaverman and Billings insist that once the entire improvement program is completed -- although the exact timetable for that depends on generating more than $3 million of private funding -- along with an improved weight room and locker room, the Indians will have a fighting chance to accomplish the team's goal of being successful in Division I-AA.

"We've been able to attract quality student-athletes because of our great coaching staff and I think we're on the verge of a breakthrough season," Kaverman said. "But I didn't hire coach Billings and his staff to be a .500 program. We brought them in to win championships. If we put a few million dollars into this facility, we can have everything we need to be highly competitive in I-AA football."

Said Billings, "We want to play for championships. That's what I came here for, to win conference championships, and at some point in time play for a national championship. There's no question Houck can be a tremendous facility. It can be a great place. It's like having an old house. You re-do it the right way and it's really nice."

As for the season ahead -- practice begins in early August and the first game is Aug. 29 -- Billings is optimistic that, regardless of the facilities, the Indians are close to turning things around.

"My first year here, it was miserable, we were so bad," he said. "I felt last year we got really close, playing a lot of young kids and losing a lot of close games.

"Right now I feel like I'm finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. I just hope it's not a train coming at me."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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