April 18, 2008
 

MSUB One of 22 Schools to Win NCAA Community-Engagement Award

BILLINGS, Mont. – Montana State University is one of 22 schools to win the NCAA 2008 Community-engagement Award, the NCAA announced Wednesday.  The Yellowjackets win a $500 grant from the NCAA to be used for future community-engagement efforts.

MSUB’s “Soccer Home for the Billings Community” was tabbed the best community-engagement project in the Great Northwest Athletic conference with the majority of the conference submitting entries.  All 21 Division II conference winners were awarded the $500 prize and Northern Michigan University took home $1000 as the best overall community-engagement project.

The “Soccer Home for the Billings Community” project is the newly renovated home of the men’s and women’s soccer teams at MSUB and the Billings community as a whole.  It is a state-of-the-art artificial turn, soccer-only field, the largest and the only one of its kind in the state of Montana.  Local organizations, such as the Magic City Soccer Club and Yellowstone Soccer Association, will heavily utilize this field as well as the Yellowjackets.  In addition, local high school teams have been invited to play on the field as well.

The field, completed this spring, already has seen numerous teams playing on it and will see many more in the future.  In fact, a MSUB women’s soccer spring tournament featuring five schools is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. 

The field is located at the MSUB College of Technology Campus and is just East of Shiloh on Central.