Welcome to the State of Colorado State, a way to quickly catch up on what’s happening in CSU sports.

This week, Colorado State Softball ushered in their new stadium under the lights and, according to reporting from the Coloradoan — as well as an ambiguous press release — CHSAA will play their championship games at Canvas Stadium.

Time for softball under the lights

CSU Softball ushered in a new era last Saturday, playing their first-ever, home night game.

Colorado State has been completely renovating and revamping their home softball stadium lately, and opened it up to the world on Saturday, April 1. And not only is it a beautiful new home field, the school included lights for night games.

From a CSU press release, “Featuring a new stadium concourse, improved fan seating, new team dugouts, netting throughout the complex and lights over the field, the upgraded Ram Field was made possible thanks to a five million dollar donation from the Bohemian Foundation donated specifically towards Colorado State women’s athletics.”

Here’s a look at the new Ram Field from the air during the inaugural night game:

CHSAA to host 4A, 5A championships at Canvas Stadium

On Tuesday, Colorado State sent out a press release that had some vague information about a press conference scheduled at Canvas Stadium on April 6.

A snippet of the press conference from CHSAA.

Well, according to Kevin Lytle of the Coloradoan, the press conference will be to announce Colorado High Schools Activities Association’s 4A and 5A championship games will be played at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins.

This is a great move both for Colorado State as well as CHSAA.

For the high school players, it’s a chance to play in a giant stadium and one that is the next level up from high school, a college stadium. Previously, CHSAA games were played at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium, which was mostly empty.

Canvas has a capacity about half as large at Mile High, at 36,500, and will be a much more intimate experience for the families, the students who travel for the game and the players on the field.

For CSU, it’s a great move because it will bring those families and players up to Fort Collins and they’ll play in Canvas. It’s a short leap to imagine then playing for Colorado State and calling Canvas home for many years to come. It’s a possible recruiting boost for the Rams, at least for those in-state students.

Plus, it’s another day to use the stadium and get the most out of the investment. Those in Fort Collins who were against the stadium back before it was built in 2017 argued it would be used only six days per year. However, the school has been finding ways to use it more often, including hosting minor league soccer games and now these high school games, too.