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New baseball fields near completion in Austintown
By kristine gill
austintown
As a seventh-grade language-arts teacher, softball coach Melody Ward has been able to observe daily progress in the building of the new softball fields from the second floor of Austintown Middle School.
“I walk down the stairs every day and see the beautiful landscape,” Ward said.
Workers put the finishing touches on the new fields across from AMS last week. They were built to make room for a new school building for kindergarten through second grade that will take their place behind Frank Ohl Intermediate School.
Though their season won’t begin until after tryouts in March, varsity team captain Amanda Callahan is excited to play on the new fields.
“I have seen it, and it is gorgeous,” she said.
Callahan, 17, is a senior this year and said the team used to practice and play on the same field behind Frank Ohl. She said though the existing fields were in good condition, new fields add more excitement to the season.
Mal Culp, supervisor of facilities and operations for the district, said he was excited to create a nice space for the Lady Falcons. The playing field sits back from Raccoon Road, and a practice field is closer to the road next to the 9/11 Memorial Park.
Culp said the infield is 200 tons of a crushed brick and clay mixture.
“It’s pretty cool,” Culp said. “It’s a nice playing field.”
The old fields were only 4 years old but had to be replaced when plans for the new building cropped up. Culp said he tried to salvage what he could from the old fields because the materials there were still in good condition.
One of the dugouts includes a new storage space for equipment, and the back-stop of the practice field was salvaged from the old field behind Frank Ohl. The practice field’s infield includes soil from the old field.
The project cost about $85,000 and was funded with the school district’s money. Austintown schools partnered with Austintown Township Parks to include the regulation field which can be used by other groups with a permit.
There are about 30 girls on the varsity and junior varsity teams at Fitch High School. Ward coaches the varsity team.
“It’s a new year, new field, new team, new confidence,” Callahan said. “I think we’re going to do really well this year.”