The men’s Division III tournament begins on Wednesday.

LEWISTON – There have never been any cornfields on the corner of Russell Street and Central Avenue in Lewiston, but the notion of “If you build it, they will come” applied just as well to the new tennis facility built on that site.

In 2000, Bates College dedicated the James G. Wallach Tennis Center and immediately started the process for bidding on a national championship. On Wednesday, just four years later, the NCAA Men’s Division III National Tennis Championships will be decided on those very courts.

Bates College will start welcoming athletes to Lewiston on Monday as they arrive with dreams of a national title glimmering in their eyes.

“It was something that we immediately thought of when we opened the facility in 2000,” said Bates Athletic Director Suzanne Coffey. “It generated such excitement and we thought we ought to put a bid in for the next available national tournament.”

Four years later, the plan has come to fruition, as the 32 best singles players and eight best teams in Division III converge on the city starting Monday.

The pitch

To even host a national championship is an honor for most schools. Bates has done so four times in its storied athletic history: Twice for skiing and once for indoor track. This will be the first warm-weather, outdoor event the Lewiston school hosts.

To first be acknowledged as a bidder and be a part of the selection process, the school had to pitch the idea to the NCAA championships committee.

“We put in a bid two years in a row,” coach Paul Gastonguay said. “(Coffey) was big in helping to support the idea and there was a lot of work behind the scenes to make it work.”

Once the bid was in, officials had to visit the site. They had nothing but praise for one of the newest facilities in all of Division III.

“The first big step was getting them to come here,” Gastonguay said. “We first had a committee member come here, and he was wowed. From that point on, he was definitely on our side.”

As a sitting member of that committee at the time, Coffey got a first-hand look at the process.

“I was lucky enough to be a member of that committee, even though I had no vote,” Coffey said. “The bid was approved in large part because we have such a great facility.”

The preparation

The Wallach Tennis Center is one of a kind. Certainly there are no facilities in Maine quite like it, nor are there many across the country.

“It’s unique,” Gastonguay said. “That actually probably helped put us over the edge, even though some other bids had more courts.”

In all, there are eight Plexicushion hard courts configured in two banks of four. Stadium seating is located at both ends of each bank of courts which provides fans with viewing access to every match. Championship quality lighting creates the perfect environment for night matches, giving the NCAA a unique opportunity to schedule a night session.

“The night session helped us in that we will be able to go longer into the night,” Gastonguay said. “That helped alleviate the concerns of having maybe four fewer courts. Also, it will give people who work during the day a chance to come out and see the matches.”

Two local hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn and the Ramada Inn, will be housing athletes, and the eight-court complex at Lewiston High School will be used for practice while matches are being played at the Wallach Center.

Home grown

Just for flavor, and in a fortunate twist of fate, Bates College sophomore Will Boe-Wiegard will be competing in the singles tournament. The team was eliminated in a preliminary regional held last week in Massachusetts by Williams College.

“The team’s overall record this year is very deceptive because we play in the hardest conference in the country,” Gastonguay said. “Of the 27 teams selected for the national tournament, six came out of the NESCAC. The team itself broke a school record this year by being selected to its fifth consecutive national tournament.”

Twice Wiegard has won the NESCAC singles title by defeating the conference Player of the Year, and just this week was named a No. 2 seed for the 32-man tournament.

“He was No. 1 in New England as a junior player,” Gastonguay said. “He was also No. 108 among juniors nationally. He turned down Wake Forest and Penn State to come here, so we are obviously happy about that.”

“It’s very exciting to have him in the tournament,” Coffey agreed. “We hope that we have the next singles champion already playing here for us. Essentially he will be playing in front of all of his best friends at home. Talk about an advantage.”

The advantage isn’t all Wiegard’s. The city, too, will be at an advantage to have all of the athletes in town, and to have a national championship being played in their own backyard. Not since 1985 (Mens’ and Womens’ Indoor Track) has there been an assembly of top notch college athletes in Lewiston. In 1999, Bates hosted the Division III Skiing Championships, but the actual competition site was well away from Lewiston, at Sunday River in Newry.

Bates also hosted the Ski Championships in 1976.

jpelletier@sunjournal.com

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