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January 17, 2015

Seahawk Athletics Receives $1 Million Gift

WILMINGTON, North Carolina – House of Raeford Farms, Inc., is making a $1 million gift to the University of North Carolina – Wilmington (UNCW) Athletics to provide funding for a $2 million indoor practice facility at Brooks Field that will benefit the school’s baseball and softball teams.

The donation is one of the largest ever to the athletics department since its origination in the early 1950s.

“We feel very strongly about the need for our generation to invest into the lives of young people”, said Bob Johnson, President & CEO of House of Raeford. “Athletics provides a great platform to develop positive character traits that lead to successful futures for these young men and women. Enhancing the athletic programs at our universities, we believe is one of the ways to help produce lasting results.”

The 14,000-square foot facility will include a 120×120 practice area for pitchers and hitters with surrounding netting and mechanical drop nets from the ceiling. It will also feature a large team meeting room, umpires’ locker room, rest rooms and storage space. The project will allow teams to not only work on hitting, but hone their defensive skills and take ground balls as well.

“We’re very appreciative of the Bob and Luanne Johnson and Dennis and Diane Beasley families, owners of House of Raeford, for this contribution that will allow us to start this project,” said Mark Scalf, UNCW’s 22-year head coach. “It will give our players an opportunity to work and practice the way many other programs around the country currently do.”

Scalf said the team has 18 practice days before the start of each season and inclement weather limited the Seahawks to just five practices last spring. The new facility will solve that dilemma.

“Since we’ve gone to this rule, the most we’ve been able to practice prior to the season is 12 days,” said Scalf. “We’ve needed a facility like this badly. It will allow us to work offensively and defensively, and go live pitcher vs. hitter no matter what the weather is.

“This has been in discussion for a long time and for it to become a reality is very exciting for us. It will be a big boost to our recruiting and for the developmental side of the players already in the program.”

Third-year Head Softball Coach Kristy Norton echoed Scalf’s sentiments on the boost the new facility will provide. “The addition of an indoor hitting facility will have an immediate positive impact on our athletes. The facility will greatly improve our efforts to continue to practice on a normal basis, regardless of Mother Nature. Without hesitation, having a space to train out of the elements will greatly improve our athletes’ ability to compete with other softball programs.”

Director of Athletics Jimmy Bass said the donation will be transformative in nature and provide a huge boost for the department.

“We’re very grateful for the generosity of House of Raeford,” said Bass. “This substantial gift will give our programs a facility that’s long overdue and will help our deserving student-athletes in so many ways. Mark Scalf and his staff have done a wonderful job with the program and this will help us continue to field an exemplary program on the NCAA Division I level.”

Since 2003, the UNCW baseball team has captured two Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championships, five regular season titles and appeared in six NCAA Regionals. The Seahawks are the only school in CAA history to play in all 29 of the league’s postseason tournaments. Brooks Field has hosted the league’s championship tournament 12 times, including last year’s event. Fifty-eight players have gone on to play professional baseball since Scalf took over the program in 1992.

House of Raeford Farms, Inc. is one of the nation’s top ten largest chicken processors, providing ready-to-cook and further processed chicken products to the foodservice, retail, and export markets. The company is family-owned and operated and based out of Rose Hill, North Carolina with additional facilities in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

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