Mike Halloran’s brain provided an inkling Thursday of what was to come.

After three officials from the Missouri State High School Activities Association visited Heritage Park, Halloran liked St. Joseph’s chances to host the State Softball Championships.

“We kind of had a plan in mind of what we wanted to do,” said the senior recreation supervisor for St. Joseph’s Parks and Recreation Department, “and how we wanted to do it and how we wanted to showcase our facility and our town.

“I felt great. I really don’t think that we left anything unanswered.”

On Tuesday, MSHSAA’s board of directors unanimously declared its confidence in St. Joseph’s ability to host the annual event with an 8-0 vote during a conference call. Heritage Park, a five-field facility opened in the summer of 2002, will host the two-day championships starting this fall and again in October 2009.

Missouri supports four classes of softball. There are two semifinals and then championship and third-place games in each classification.

The change in site comes as part of a new trend under MSHSAA executive director Kerwin Urhahn, who enters his third year. Urhahan has placed an emphasis on seeking out the best sites to host championships.

Volleyball moves to Kansas City this fall after a long run in Warrensburg, while in 2006 baseball moved from Columbia to Springfield.

“It’s something our board has wanted to do,” said MSHSAA assistant executive director George Blase, “and we need to make it available for all areas of the state to get involved in what sports they want to be involved in. Most sports will have that — if not all sports — over the next few years, when the current contracts we have in place run out.”

MSHSAA sent out bid proposals in mid-July. St. Joseph, Springfield and Columbia were the only sites to respond. Officials visited each of the three locales after the Aug. 15 deadline, including a trip to Heritage Park last Thursday.

Halloran believed travel distance and media amenities were the biggest concerns.

Only one of Heritage Park’s five fields contains an actual press box, and MSHSAA hopes to use four fields during the championships. There also is no current wireless network and could be a shortage of dedicated phone lines needed for radio and internet broadcasts.

But Halloran addressed those needs in the proposal.

“There’s nothing in that proposal that we couldn’t accomplish in two weeks, much less two months,” he said.

Travel concerns were also weighed by MSHSAA.

Taking a sample from last year’s state qualifiers, Blase and other officials calculated the average round-trip distance for those schools to each of the potential state sites. St. Joseph had the longest of the three, but, according to Blase, it wasn’t exorbitantly farther.

“I’m a realist. I know geographics are the biggest thing working against us,” Halloran said. “Where we’re located is not going to help us, so you have to figure out how to overcome that.”

According to Blase, the next sports to come up for site bids will be baseball and track and field. Halloran took MSHSAA officials to Phil Welch Stadium last week at their urging, and softball might not be the last sport to bring its state championships to St. Joseph.

Phil Welch Stadium is set for major renovations in the near future that could bring it up to date with current baseball host Meador Park in Springfield.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Halloran said, “they’ll have that bid on their desk as soon as they ask for it.”