Hodge Field in Radford was built in the late 70s, and over the years has been home to both boys and girls baseball and softball games.
This coming Monday, the public is invited to the rededication of the field at 5:30 p.m., 1014 Pendleton Street in Radford.
Joe Hodge was a long-time member of the Radford Parks and Recreation Department where he served as athletic director and the parks and fields supervisor. He, along with several summer park aides, the Public Works Department and many volunteers helped to construct the field.
When he wasn’t working on the fields, Hodge also found time to help coach many teams.
The new upgrades by the recreation department include new dugouts, fencing, water lines, scoreboard, seating, painting and a new Joe Hodge Field sign.
RU’s Rupert Big South POW
The Big South Conference announced Tuesday morning that River Rupert has earned Defensive Player of the Week honors for the first time this season.
The Falls Church native headed Radford’s defense to back-to-back 16-6 victories. During the game against Gardner-Webb, Rupert tallied a single-game career high of four caused turnovers in addition to three groundballs and an assist on a goal. Facing Presbyterian, she caused three turnovers and scooped up two groundballs. Rupert was also a major contributor to Radford’s 91-percent success rate across the two games.
Kinneberg to lead River Turtles
The Pulaski River Turtles will enter their fourth year of competition in the Appalachian League with new leadership in the clubhouse, as respected baseball veteran Bill Kinneberg joins the organization as manager for the 2024 season.
The appointment marks Kinneberg’s second season in the Appalachian League; Kinneberg managed the Bristol State Liners in 2023.
A decorated baseball veteran with 39 years of coaching experience, Kinneberg has enjoyed considerable success in college baseball.
Regarded as one of the most accomplished head coaches in the history of the University of Utah’s baseball program, Kinneberg amassed 381 wins, two NCAA tournament appearances, one Mountain West tournament championship and one Pac-12 conference title during his 18-year career (1996, 2005-21). Kinneberg received the Pac-12 Baseball Coach of the Year award in 2016. He retired from full-time coaching following Utah’s 2021 season.
Head coaching stints at UTEP (1985) and Wyoming (1986-92) preceded his tenure at Utah. His teams established school records for victories in a season at UTEP in 1985 and Wyoming in 1990, an achievement that earned him WAC Coach of the Year honors.
Pulaski native new JMU AD
James Madison University President Jonathan Alger and the university Board of Visitors on Thursday announced the appointment of Matt Roan as the institution’s new director of athletics. Roan arrives following four years as AD at Eastern Kentucky University.
Roan is a Pulaski, Virginia native with deep ties to the Commonwealth, hailing from southwest Virginia and attending both Hargrave Military Academy and Virginia Tech. He completed his undergraduate degree as a student-athlete at Southern Utah University and went on to earn a law degree from the University of Kentucky in 2012. He served as deputy AD at Southern Utah and Eastern Kentucky University before then assuming the AD position at Nicholls State University in 2016. He returned to EKU as AD in 2020 and will enter his ninth year as a Division I director of athletics when he takes over at James Madison in May.
Former RU assistant to Mount
Mount St. Mary’s has hired Donny Lind as the 23rd head coach in men’s basketball program history. An assistant coach at University of North Carolina Greensboro for the past several years, Lind, who has been successful at every stop, brings tremendous energy along with an up-tempo offense and defense.
Lind served on coaching staffs at both Radford University and UNCG under head coach Mike Jones. Radford won back-to-back Big South regular season titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20 during his tenure in Virginia. He also helped the Highlanders win the 2017-18 Big South Tournament, leading to a First Four win over LIU Brooklyn for the program’s first NCAA Tournament win. Earning high marks at UNCG as well, the Spartans earned the No. 2 seed in the SoCon last year after earning a 21-11 record. Electric from long range, UNCG ranked fourth in the country for three-point percentage, making 39.7 percent of all shots and drilling over 10 shots per game from beyond-the-arc.
