Duke University.

Those two words alone conjure up thoughts and images of preeminent athletic achievement, especially for college basketball fans. The rich experience of sport has been a reality for fans of 26 different varsity sports at Duke, ranging from baseball to field hockey to wrestling.

But diehard softball fans of Blue Devil nation have had to look elsewhere to get their fix, until now.

Vice President and Director of Athletics Kevin White announced in December of 2013 that Duke would make softball the university’s 27th varsity sport, after having been hotly-debated among Duke athletics directors as to whether a softball program would draw enough student interest.

With little more than a year and half of a mere announcement to cheer, future Duke softball fans came one step closer to the fruition their dream when White announced the hire of former University of North Carolina assistant coach Marissa Young as Duke’s first head coach in late July, 2015.

Social media support exploded for the new program and coach on Duke Softball’s official Facebook page.

Young’s hire checks off a milestone in the program’s brief existence and sets the stage for more progress along the timeline before the first pitch of the 2017-2018 season. With the hire of Young, Duke can move onto the next phase of the process, building the stadium.

Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance Todd Mesibov will work closely with Young over the next two years to build out the program, focusing much time and effort on building the stadium. Speculation abounds that softball will be the second team, the first being field hockey, with facilities on East Campus.

“[We’ll see] if there’s some overlap that can be useful or in the planning in terms of training room services, equipment room services, sharing visitors’ locker rooms or other things just to be efficient with what we’re doing,” Mesibov said.

According to Duke’s timeline, construction on the stadium is slated to begin the summer of 2016 and be completed in time for the beginning of the fall season of 2017.

Another step in the process for the emergent program is recruiting. While recruiting will largely be a responsibility of Young’s, Mesibov speculates that some players from Duke’s current club team will transition onto the team its first few seasons.

He also expects some athletes will enroll in the 2016-2017 year and play a season for the club team in preparation for the program’s first varsity season in 2017-2018. “We expect that there’ll be some students who enroll next year, meaning 2016-2017, eventually anticipating that they will be part of the varsity program,” he said.

Beyond utilizing the club team for recruiting, another likely strategy will be hosting camps and clinics on campus. As announced on Duke Softball’s Twitter page last week, the program will host its first camp November 15, 2015.

Save The Date for our 1st Duke Softball Camp Nov. 15th. More details to come soon!
— Duke Softball (@Duke_SOFTBALL) August 20, 2015

The timeline for the softball program is a product of the Duke athletic department’s strategic plan for the future, titled “Unrivaled Ambition,” that was released in 2008. The plan detailed objectives of overhauling the culture of the football program, initiating construction projects, and offering support and scholarships to Olympic sports.

With the addition of softball, Duke becomes the 12th school in the Atlantic Coastal Conference to field a softball team. As a Southern school, Duke sits in a hotbed of softball talent and will face formidable competition in the up-and-coming softball conference that is the ACC, which boasts two teams — Florida State and Notre Dame — that finished ranked in the top 25 in 2015.

Vice President White sees an opportunity for softball to fulfill objectives in the Unrivaled Ambition plan and provide competition in the tough ACC conference.

“Duke University is fully committed to providing the most complete educational and athletic opportunities for women,” White affirmed. “Adding both softball and new scholarships will enhance and enrich the collective experiences for female student-athletes. Specifically, softball will be a great addition to our varsity programs because it is played at the highest level in the Atlantic Coast Conference.”