North Field at East Park to be Renamed Doug Chance Field

EL DORADO, Kan. – Doug Chance made an indelible impact on the Butler Community College softball program in his 18 years as head coach. Now, his name will officially become a part of Butler Athletics.

The city of El Dorado announced via their Facebook page that North Field at East Park, where Butler softball plays their home games, will be renamed to Doug Chance Field in honor of Butler's former Hall of Fame softball coach.

The city commission received a request from the community to rename the field. The matter went through the parks and recreation advisory committee who eventually decided to move forward with the plan.

Chance was inducted into the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame in 2025 and the NJCAA Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2024. He served as Grizzly head coach from 2005 through 2022 (18 seasons) helping the Grizzlies to back-to-back national championships in 2016 and 2017. He held an overall record of 772-177 with the Grizzlies making 12 World Series appearances, winning 14 KJCCC titles, 13 KJCCC Coach of the Year honors and he coached 33 All-Americans.

Aside from the coaching accomplishments, Chance and his coaching staff put in a tremendous amount of work over the years to improve the facility and maintain it as one of the nicest in the Jayhawk Conference.

"It's an honor to have the field named after me," Chance said. "I owe a lot to my assistant Zack Sigler who put in literally thousands of hours working on that field. He and I shared the same vision to build the Butler Softball brand and improving the facility was a big part of that vision."

Current head coach Morgan Bohanan won a national championship as a student-athlete under Chance in 2016 and will enter her fourth season as head coach during the 2025-26 season.

"I'm super excited that the field will now be named after Doug," Bohanan said. "He has put in so much work out there in his 18 years, on top of building an incredible program. To see all of his hard work recognized and for him to now be a part of East Park forever is well deserved. I am so happy for him and his family."

Chance coached the Grizzlies to an 88-game win streak, a streak that stretched from the 2016-2017 seasons and a record that still holds as the best across all collegiate softball levels.

Details on when signage will be updated at the field will be announced at a later date.