La Roche College

Raising the Bar: Branding for Baseball
Coach & AD Magazine. June 2018

La Roche College Baseball was in the Division 3 College World Series in 2016. Their program was obviously top-notch, but their field and weight room didn’t scream “La Roche.” In fact, they didn’t scream anything. Walls and fences were nearly bare, with hand-painted lettering of “Redhawks” and “LRC” on solid black and red screens along the fence. Coach Chase Rowe knew something had to change if they were to keep the program at this level.

However, like many Division 3 programs, their budget didn’t allow for much in the way of facilities improvements. In order to keep recruitment up to the College World Series level, La Roche needed to catch the attention of recruits and stand out in some way. Rowe knew turf was out of the question because of the enormous cost, so he looked for another solution.

“We were looking to raise the bar in our facility and keep the pace with the other programs out there. We wanted to figure out a cost-effective way to give our facility more of an appeal,” Rowe said. They figured out they needed to completely rebrand the facility.

With the help of BigSigns.com, Rowe had championship banners installed along with a branded Dura-Mesh Fence Screen around the whole field. Their logo, a redhawk head, stretches 20 feet by 90 feet on a giant wall.

In addition to the baseball field, the weight room was also upgraded. First, it was moved to the old racquetball courts that were no longer in use; then they added branded wall wraps to that space to inspire athletes. All of the La Roche sports programs are represented in the weight room wall wraps so that other programs can be inspired by the athletic department’s accomplishments. Their space is no longer stale: it’s wholly La Roche in look and feel.

Rowe said they chose to work with BigSigns.com because they had great examples of places they’d worked with and looked better than the competition. “Our rep was awesome. They were cheaper and better than the competitors. So we stuck with them,” Rowe said. They didn’t break the budget but did give a stunning facelift for La Roche’s facilities.

Players and fans agree: the new look is superb. The community also sees an improvement. Their field is used in the summer for tournaments, and area high schoolers and the recruiting get to see the “pop” of their branding even after the college season is finished. Rowe said this has shown recruiters that La Roche has a good baseball program and that things are only going up from here.