Kansas State University Athletics
Buser’s Generosity Enhances Gameday Experience
Apr 11, 2022 | Soccer, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
A large silver nameplate with purple letters that read "K-STATE SOCCER" hangs upon the rear wall and spans half of the Kansas State women's soccer team meeting room at Buser Family Park. Written upon a black nameplate in silver lettering at the front of the room are three words: "COMPETE," "RESPECT" and "FAMILY." In between, sitting in black leather theater chairs, stirs women's soccer players, donned in practice attire, and cheering and clapping as generous K-State alum John Buser makes a grand announcement.
"I came to Coach Mike Dibbini last fall and asked him, 'What can we do to help the program to the next level?'" Buser says.
"We're going to install a wall on the far side of the field to finish off the look and put a nice videoboard at midfield."
Cue the cheers.
"I can't imagine," K-State senior defender Aliyah El-Naggar says moments later as the team thanked Buser while heading to the locker room. "Going to Oklahoma State and TCU and seeing their videoboards, it's just amazing what this is going to do for this program. I absolutely love our facilities. What Mr. Buser has done for us is absolutely insane and I can't be more grateful.
"I'm so excited for our upcoming season. I can't wait until we get into the fall and play more games."
Nearly six months have passed since K-State finished its sixth season in history at John Vanier Family Field at Buser Family Park. The Wildcats went 6-10-2, tying the school record for wins, and setting records for goals (20), assists (20) and points (60). The team is in the midst of a five-match spring schedule that includes matches against Saint Louis, Arkansas, Air Force, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Momentum appears to be on the side of the Wildcats, who return 11 of their top 12 point scorers for the 2022 season. Dibbini signed 12 players to supplement returning core players, providing an athletic and dynamic punch for a squad that could head toward its first-ever berth in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
Aesthetically, K-State is in a great spot, as the Wildcats aim toward national acclaim. Buser Family Park, which opened in the summer of 2019, harbors a stadium capacity of 1,400 and features booths for television, radio, operations and media, along with a suite for fans. Construction to the locker room, visiting team locker room, team lounge, coaching staff offices, sports medicine space and strength and conditioning space were completed following the 2019 season.
Buser Family Park features a Daktronics scoreboard and a Musco lighting system.
It's expected that the videoboard, which will measure 23 feet by 41 feet in size and include a new sound system and scoreboard panel, will be fully operational by the time K-State kicks off its fall season next August.
The video display will be among the largest in the Big 12.
"I'm excited that John Buser loves this program and loves the direction we're going," Dibbini says. "It'll be great to continue to grow it. This videoboard will be amazing for our student-athlete experience, fan experience and recruiting standpoint, and the hype videos. The videoboard is only going to continue to grow this program."
Besides the videoboard, K-State will install a wall on the far side of the field to complete the soccer stadium. A fence will feature sponsorships and K-State logos. Through Buser's generous gift, the Wildcats will also install a field recovery area and rehabilitation lasers. The field recovery area is expected to feature five Normatec leg packages with DreamSeat recliners, while rehabilitation lasers produce a saturation of photons into the tissue, which results in much faster healing times.
"John stepped up in a very significant way that we're really proud of, and it's going to impact the K-State women's soccer program in a very special way," says Josh McCowan, K-State senior associate athletic director of development. "His generosity will really impact the soccer program and move the program forward. These pieces will benefit K-State both from a fan-experience standpoint and from a student-athlete standpoint. We can't thank John enough."
K-Staters John ('78) and Ann ('80) Buser, residents of Dallas, Texas since 1982, became ardent supporters of the K-State women's soccer program in 2018. John, a native of Independence, Kansas, who graduated from K-State in College of Business Administration in 1978, fell in love with the game of soccer along with Ann while spending 16 years as soccer parents, coaches and club managers. John and Ann have two children, Alyssa and Andrew.
"I've never kicked a ball, but I've definitely been on the sideline for many, many years supporting my son as a child, then managing the club he was involved in for club soccer," Buser says. "It was natural to come to K-State and natural for us to help soccer, and it just happened to coincide with the baseball-soccer fundraising effort. It was just good fortune that I was able to participate in that."
The Buser family gifted a seven-figure donation to the Baseball-Soccer facility campaign. The soccer facility groundbreaking ceremony was October 12, 2018.
This marks the second seven-figure donation by the Buser family.
Asked to describe his feelings in being able to provide such an indelible impact upon the women's soccer program for the second time in four years, Buser grinned while standing inside the soccer team meeting room following his grand announcement.
"If you go back and look at the girls' introduction to the locker room for the first time, you can see how joyous they were," he says. "You can see how joyous they were today over the extension of the facility."
Buser looks around the K-State team meeting room, a structure that his generous donation a few years ago helped fund, and a space that will continue to impact young women for many years.
"Anytime you can do something, and you can see it on peoples' faces and know they appreciate it," he says, "you feel great."
A large silver nameplate with purple letters that read "K-STATE SOCCER" hangs upon the rear wall and spans half of the Kansas State women's soccer team meeting room at Buser Family Park. Written upon a black nameplate in silver lettering at the front of the room are three words: "COMPETE," "RESPECT" and "FAMILY." In between, sitting in black leather theater chairs, stirs women's soccer players, donned in practice attire, and cheering and clapping as generous K-State alum John Buser makes a grand announcement.
"I came to Coach Mike Dibbini last fall and asked him, 'What can we do to help the program to the next level?'" Buser says.
"We're going to install a wall on the far side of the field to finish off the look and put a nice videoboard at midfield."
Cue the cheers.
"I can't imagine," K-State senior defender Aliyah El-Naggar says moments later as the team thanked Buser while heading to the locker room. "Going to Oklahoma State and TCU and seeing their videoboards, it's just amazing what this is going to do for this program. I absolutely love our facilities. What Mr. Buser has done for us is absolutely insane and I can't be more grateful.
"I'm so excited for our upcoming season. I can't wait until we get into the fall and play more games."
Nearly six months have passed since K-State finished its sixth season in history at John Vanier Family Field at Buser Family Park. The Wildcats went 6-10-2, tying the school record for wins, and setting records for goals (20), assists (20) and points (60). The team is in the midst of a five-match spring schedule that includes matches against Saint Louis, Arkansas, Air Force, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Momentum appears to be on the side of the Wildcats, who return 11 of their top 12 point scorers for the 2022 season. Dibbini signed 12 players to supplement returning core players, providing an athletic and dynamic punch for a squad that could head toward its first-ever berth in the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
Aesthetically, K-State is in a great spot, as the Wildcats aim toward national acclaim. Buser Family Park, which opened in the summer of 2019, harbors a stadium capacity of 1,400 and features booths for television, radio, operations and media, along with a suite for fans. Construction to the locker room, visiting team locker room, team lounge, coaching staff offices, sports medicine space and strength and conditioning space were completed following the 2019 season.
Buser Family Park features a Daktronics scoreboard and a Musco lighting system.
It's expected that the videoboard, which will measure 23 feet by 41 feet in size and include a new sound system and scoreboard panel, will be fully operational by the time K-State kicks off its fall season next August.
The video display will be among the largest in the Big 12.
"I'm excited that John Buser loves this program and loves the direction we're going," Dibbini says. "It'll be great to continue to grow it. This videoboard will be amazing for our student-athlete experience, fan experience and recruiting standpoint, and the hype videos. The videoboard is only going to continue to grow this program."
Besides the videoboard, K-State will install a wall on the far side of the field to complete the soccer stadium. A fence will feature sponsorships and K-State logos. Through Buser's generous gift, the Wildcats will also install a field recovery area and rehabilitation lasers. The field recovery area is expected to feature five Normatec leg packages with DreamSeat recliners, while rehabilitation lasers produce a saturation of photons into the tissue, which results in much faster healing times.
"John stepped up in a very significant way that we're really proud of, and it's going to impact the K-State women's soccer program in a very special way," says Josh McCowan, K-State senior associate athletic director of development. "His generosity will really impact the soccer program and move the program forward. These pieces will benefit K-State both from a fan-experience standpoint and from a student-athlete standpoint. We can't thank John enough."
K-Staters John ('78) and Ann ('80) Buser, residents of Dallas, Texas since 1982, became ardent supporters of the K-State women's soccer program in 2018. John, a native of Independence, Kansas, who graduated from K-State in College of Business Administration in 1978, fell in love with the game of soccer along with Ann while spending 16 years as soccer parents, coaches and club managers. John and Ann have two children, Alyssa and Andrew.
"I've never kicked a ball, but I've definitely been on the sideline for many, many years supporting my son as a child, then managing the club he was involved in for club soccer," Buser says. "It was natural to come to K-State and natural for us to help soccer, and it just happened to coincide with the baseball-soccer fundraising effort. It was just good fortune that I was able to participate in that."
The Buser family gifted a seven-figure donation to the Baseball-Soccer facility campaign. The soccer facility groundbreaking ceremony was October 12, 2018.
This marks the second seven-figure donation by the Buser family.
"It's awesome," senior defender Kursten Von Klahr says. "That's the next thing our program needs to get more recruits. Everyone likes to go to a school that has nice facilities and a nice big screen to watch plays on. It's going to attract some more girls. For us, it's great. It's a nice board for the hard work we've done, and we really appreciate John Buser for doing all this for us.""Help the program to the next level..." - John Buser#KStateSOC x Family pic.twitter.com/Dohvj8kgpr
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) April 8, 2022
Asked to describe his feelings in being able to provide such an indelible impact upon the women's soccer program for the second time in four years, Buser grinned while standing inside the soccer team meeting room following his grand announcement.
"If you go back and look at the girls' introduction to the locker room for the first time, you can see how joyous they were," he says. "You can see how joyous they were today over the extension of the facility."
Buser looks around the K-State team meeting room, a structure that his generous donation a few years ago helped fund, and a space that will continue to impact young women for many years.
"Anytime you can do something, and you can see it on peoples' faces and know they appreciate it," he says, "you feel great."
Players Mentioned
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