(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD is stepping up to the plate in an attempt to address the needs of the baseball and softball programs at Seguin High School.
The Seguin ISD Board of Trustees on Tuesday night approved a resolution giving Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez the authority to delegate how the district should proceed in moving forward with the improvement of current fields or the overall construction of a brand-new baseball/softball complex.
According to district officials, choosing to give Dr. Gutierrez the authority to get things going will in the end speed up the process in providing the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees with more insight as to what it will take to improve or build new facilities. The current facilities include the softball field on the south end of the high school campus and the city of Seguin’s Smokey Joe Field near the Seguin Coliseum which for years has served as the home field for the baseball team.
Many might recall that prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Seguin ISD was in the process of beginning to consider the project. However, like most things, the programs’ needs were put on the back burner.
Helping place that project back on the table for consideration is new Athletic Director Craig Dailey. Dailey says after assessing all athletic facilities, both the baseball and softball fields quickly rose to the top of his list of priorities. Using photos of fields in other school districts, Dailey showed just how much the local fields were in need of some major upgrades.
“Currently, this is what our field looks like at the high school. As you can see, it’s not in the condition that you saw in the previous slide. The pitching mound that you see on the right is about two or three inches above ground. You can’t even do any mound work on there. The grass lines are all messed up. That’s our infield and most of it is dead grass. With rocks, you can’t see in the picture. This is the current condition of our softball field. It is essentially the same way. Grass is on the infield which there shouldn’t be no grass on the softball infields. There’s cracks in the outfields and holes if you walk the field currently,” said Dailey.
Following an assessment of the fields and his own experience of having upgraded facilities in his former Houston area district following Hurricane Harvey, Dailey noted potential options in moving forward. The first includes improving the current grass fields and making upgrades to the existing sites. The second option offered by Dailey would be building a brand-new baseball and softball complex at the high school. The complex would include the two new fields plus facilities and would come equipped with either grass or Dailey’s overall preference — artificial turf.
According to the district, preliminary estimates to upgrade the softball play surface is $135,000 and $150,000 for the current playing surface at Smokey Joe. Turf cost alone would be approximately $1.3 million for baseball and $566,000 for softball. Plans, however, for a new baseball/softball complex complete with shared ticketing, concessions, restrooms and storage is roughly estimated anywhere between $4.3 and $5.7 million.
Although it would be more expensive now, Dailey says “going turf” would in the long run pay off for the district.
“The cost of turf, we got a few estimates but just through my research, on average, it’s going to cost between $10.50 of turf per square foot. That’s on average no matter what company. I’m just talking about the turf field. I’m not talking about the stadium. If you turf your field. There’s going to be minimal maintenance. There is maintenance. You don’t have to worry about watering, no chemicals all of that stuff that you have to buy, reseeding and there’s less staff required to maintain the field if you go the turf route. The biggest thing there will be no rain outs. It can rain and 30 minutes later you can be on the field. You just got to worry about lighting. But another big positive, we can host a lot more playoff games and tournaments. It will showcase our facilities and not only that, it will also bring money to not only our school district but to our town because people are having to eat out, stay at hotels so it’s just another resource to bring money into this town. So, that’s an approximate cost if we went the turf route,” said Dailey.
Again, Dailey says safety is key to getting something done for the students. Plus, he says it just provides a sense of pride.
“Through all of this, some big concerns like I said, we went through this is pride. As I walk through the school, I feel like these facilities are outdated compared to everything else in this school. Every other program in the school has something to be proud of from CTE to fine arts, to other athletics and this is the only thing in my opinion, the only two programs left on the outside looking in compared to all of those things.
The new facilities would compliment those programs if we decide to go this route. Another concern is the safety issue. There are numerous safety hazards. The fields are uneven. There are cracks. There are holes in the field. I’ve talked about the pitching rubber. The dirt is actually four inches lower than the grass which you should not have that as a lift – as the ball comes off there. Just in this short time that I’ve been here, there’s been player injuries. Kids taking balls in the face because it comes off that lift. It hits rocks and there’s a possibility of knee and ankle injury if they step in that hole, so it is a safety concern. My son is a baseball player. My young one is a softball player. I would not feel comfortable with them practicing on that baseball field right now. Like I tell these kids, I would never ask you to do something that I wouldn’t ask my own kids to do so I wouldn’t even feel comfortable with my own child on this field in the current state that it is,” said Dailey.
More importantly it’s the creation of a classroom for the athletes. Daily says currently, baseball players have to be bused to the Smokey Joe Field for practice or play. He says that’s classroom time spent stuck on a bus than on a field.
“Athletics and other extracurricular activities are a big part of molding young men and women in today’s world. We teach them a lot of lessons about life and a lot of people don’t see it as a classroom, but it is a classroom. Are we teaching them what they are going to be tested on a standardized test? No, but every Friday or Tuesday night when they go to a game. That’s their test and that’s the coaches test and we teach them how to handle a lot of things in life – a lot of teamwork, a lot of discipline so these kids (to) not have an opportunity and the minutes and as I compared it to a math class – not getting to use a calculator and then I expect that kid to score the same as the kid that gets to use the calculator. I think it’s hard to hold a kid accountable to that same level when he or she is not given the same resources,” said Dailey.
As for financing the project, district officials say they will have to look closer at how that can be achieved responsibly. Do they use money out of fund balance, or do they wait to include it in a future bond issue? Those are the questions that hope to be answered by Dr. Gutierrez as he begins looking into whether this is a project that the district would like to proceed with.
Meanwhile, local parents aren’t holding back their support for a new baseball/softball complex. A handful were in attendance at Tuesday night’s meeting to show their support for both programs. Among those who spoke was Trevor Haas. Haas says this project is way overdue.
“Our baseball and softball programs have kind of been left behind during the recent revitalization of the high school campus. The baseball practice field currently doesn’t have any lights and Smokey Joe does not have batting cages. Therefore, coaches have to split the time at both places in order for the kids to have field time on what is supposed to be our home field. This means bussing kids that don’t drive across town two or three times a week which is time that they could have spent practicing. The think the new fields could also bring about new opportunities for all of the students and faculty. I think that there would be more spectators at our home baseball games if all they had to do was walk across the parking lot following work or practice. I think with the new facilities, spectators could also attend both baseball and softball games on nights when both were playing. There are really a lot of reasons why this needs to happen but the most important one is that these kids deserve it. They work just as hard, and they are just as important as every other sport at Seguin High School. They deserve to have a real home field. A field they can take ownership of, call their own and one that they can be proud of,” said Haas.
Also taking the podium was parent Rebecca Aguilar. Aguilar says the girls too deserve to have their field updated.
“I don’t know how many times my daughter has come home complaining about the conditions of the field, the cracks and the holes. They are afraid to run full speed because they may roll their ankle. That’s a safety issue and that’s a concern for us. The appearance of our facility is substandard. You drive down College Street and you see the facility the way that it is now. The concessions, the stands – we have a lot of fans that come and see the games, yet they bring their chairs. They have to sit down. If they are sitting on the top row, they have to stand up so they can see past third base, and I just think for the fact that we’ve updated our school. We have a brand-new facility, a brand-new high school and we have a brand new football stadium. We need to have an upgraded and updated softball/baseball shared facility and our programs deserve it. We want to ensure that they’ll feel the pride once they are playing like Trevor mentioned on their own field and we are hoping that with your consent and approval, that we can move towards that so that way, we can become a family of champions,” said Aguilar.
District officials say once more details and information can be obtained in what it will take to move forward with new or improved fields, then that proposal will return to the school board for official action.