WSU softball will now play at Mary Kay Amicone Field at Miller Park.

The latter part comes as the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation committed a “generous donation” to renovate the facility and name it after the softball great. WSU held a ceremony before Saturday’s home finale and a reception inside the Dee Events Center concourse for friends and former players to celebrate the occasion.

“It’s really humbling. Just gratitude,” Amicone said. “The Miller Group and the university have planned this for a little while, but you’re just never sure if things are going to add up and connect. But it’s great for the Ogden community.

“I love this field. This location is beautiful. It’s so important to build off it.”

Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics

It’s more than a name for the Hall of Fame coach who retired following the 2024 season.

A while back, former school president Brad Mortensen called Amicone to ask when she and her husband, Marc, would be in town so they could meet. She had no idea what the discussion would be about — perhaps they would ask if they could make a donation, she wondered.

Instead, they arrived to a room full of people and, via video call on a tablet, Gail Miller told the Amicones that she was pledging a donation to renovate the field and name it after Mary Kay.

“We’ve fought from the beginning to add on to this field and it was just incrementally that we could do improvements,” Amicone said. “So to have this is such a great blessing for the program.”

What’s in the works? Plans are still preliminary, but Amicone knows exactly what’s on the wish list: raising the bleachers/stands to create sightlines that go over the dugouts, a team room separate from the Dee Events Center, permanent bathrooms, and upgrades to the batting cages (a true hitting facility) next to the field.

Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics

Also, maybe lights?

“That’s how we earn our money and how young kids in the valley can use this facility. It’s no different to me than the Ice Sheet and the Fieldhouse,” Amicone said. “You can only do it after (WSU) practices and it becomes dark. But you could run leagues, coaches’ salaries could be increased, the level of softball can be increased.

“I hope all those things are in the renderings somewhere, and I think coach (Kristin Delahoussaye) knows what she wants. They’re going to put their best foot forward and we’re going to keep raising funds.”

Donors have stepped to build for men’s programs, like the Youngberg Football Center at Stewart Stadium, and Damian Lillard’s new financial involvement in men’s basketball.

But now it’s softball’s turn.

“To see that recognition come and the financial backing for it, it’s a game-changer for the girls and the experience they get to have,” said Kayla Morgan, assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator at WSU. “To have a large donation come in to support a female program and a female coach that it’s (named) after is so cool, for so many reasons.”

Morgan said Amicone was someone both coaches and athletes at WSU looked up to for examples of leadership, coaching philosophies and more.

“She’s been a role model for all our female student-athletes, just as someone who is strong, confident, independent; she’s not afraid of anybody,” Morgan said. “She’s going to fight for her kids, fight for her program. So having this name and the donation come in for a female coach is huge and so well-deserved.”

Somebody, somewhere in Utah needed to name a softball field after Amicone.

Amicone won more than 800 games as a head coach at BYU, Salt Lake Community College and Weber State. In 11 seasons, 297 of those wins came at WSU, winning six Big Sky regular-season titles and four trips to the NCAA Tournament. Weber State became the first (and still only) Big Sky program to win an NCAA Tournament game, and the first to earn a 3-seed in a regional.

She’s a former Weber State player, playing two years at WSU and two more at Utah where she was an All-American. Amicone also coached Bingham High softball to a state title and was the first woman to coach high school baseball in Utah when at Jordan High. She was inducted to the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 2025.

So the honor is definitely deserved.

“When you start out, you’re just building such small steps that you envision certain things to happen,” Amicone said, “but never in my wildest dreams to have a field named after me.”