Grad transfer Carter hopes to design ballparks
STILLWATER — Every other week this fall, Josh Holliday called Bryce Carter into his office. Oklahoma State's baseball coach needed help looking at blueprints for O'Brate Stadium.
Carter, a graduate transfer from Stanford but a Tulsa native, earned a degree in architectural design during his time with the Cardinal, and the catcher has found good use for it in Stillwater. With the Cowboys in their final season at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium before a move to O'Brate Stadium, Carter has gotten a firsthand look at what will go into what he hopes is his future career: designing baseball stadiums.
“He's got great personal goals in his life to be an elite ballpark designer someday and build somebody else's dream house,” Holliday said. “Hearing him talk that passionately about what he wants to do after baseball is really what the college experience is all about.”
A Cascia Hall product, Carter's first college visit was to Vanderbilt, where Holliday was then an assistant. When Holliday took the head job at his alma mater, Carter's decision came down to the Cowboys and Cardinal, but ultimately, the academic benefits of a Stanford degree swayed him.
“When Stanford offers you a scholarship,” Carter said, “it's really hard to turn down.”
As a sophomore, Carter got a suggestion from a teammate to visit an Architecture I course and quickly became enraptured, but turning that newfound passion into a specific career goal took time. To help, his academic adviser put him in contact with a notable alumnus of the program: Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.
“He was thinking about how many athletes actually are architects and how you kind of have a channel into what the player side wants,” Carter said. “I've always been interested in baseball stadiums, so I just took a liking to it, and I hope one day I can help design some beautiful stadium.”
Carter's focus is on the player-amenity portion of ballparks, an area he feels is often overlooked. O'Brate Stadium will include a “training triangle” to meet players' preparation needs, but Carter said few other stadiums include such benefits for the athletes.
“I just think they get lost sometimes in the design when it gets so focused on the fan experience, which is very important obviously,” Carter said. “But I think it would be really cool to really use my background with what I've seen in college locker rooms and being in high school and everything to actually implement that.”
Although he initially chose Stanford, Carter has found a way to “get the best of both worlds” by spending his final year of eligibility at OSU. Hitting .400 entering this weekend's series against Iowa, Carter has started all seven games at either catcher or designated hitter. His seven RBI have all come with two outs.
"He fits in so well here,” left-hander Mitchell Stone said. “He's a great guy. He's very bright. He knows what he's doing. He's a leader. He walked in and right away, you could tell he was going to be a big part of team.
“He's done nothing but help us.”