‘It’s a shame.’ Bellefonte softball community pushes for improved conditions at field
Former Bellefonte right fielder Lily Gardner is proud of her program’s resiliency.
With a 48-16 record over the course of nearly four calendar years, Bellefonte softball is one of the elite programs in the area. As the team played its first home game on Monday, the 2021 graduate looked at the uneven hill in the outfield — a space that she had to tread with caution — with disdain.
“I was a three-sport athlete in high school, so I had ankle problems from playing basketball for awhile,” Gardner said. “Being the right fielder ... I’ve had to run up the hill. If the ball would catch wind and I’d have to turn around on the hill and run back down on it, it was definitely dangerous to even play on, let alone all of the ditches. We have it (the field) right by trees ... it’s all of these sticks and things that can trip you. It’s not so safe at all.”
The team plays at a middle school field, which doesn’t have a drainage system. They also have worn down dugouts — which have been home to birds nests and other critters, and lack of permanent home run fencing, among a litany of issues.
Lily Gardner’s father, Tim, is still one of the faces at the forefront of pushing for better field conditions for his daughter’s old playing field. He has traveled to fields all across the Eastern Seaboard — each of them fielding better amenities than O’Leary Fields, in his estimation. He too was at Bellefonte’s home opener, viewing the uneven bleachers for fans on the third base side, the aging concessions stand behind the plate and the chipped paint falling from both dugouts and the power lines that make for a safety hazard that sit mere behind feet behind the home dugout.
“We have a hill in the outfield. We have a golf course for a yard,” Tim Gardner said. “It’s just terrible. The dugouts are rotten. The bleachers are shot. There are safety issues right above us. Power lines — they should be underground. I could go on for hours.”
Chris Lauck is the president of Bellefonte softball’s booster club. His daughter, Anna, is a 2021 graduate and former member of the team. While on his journeys with travel softball, he said he’s seen other facilities across the country that feature artificial grass or well-maintained natural grass playing surfaces, batting cages, home run fences, pristine dugouts, a spacious press box and a number of other amenities that Bellefonte’s fields do not fully offer.
With the aid of other members of the booster club and the Bellefonte Area School District board of directors, he hopes that will change.
“It’s a shame,” Lauck said. “You’re almost hoping we have away games just so that we’re going to play at a nice facility. That’s some of the biggest concerns. The dugouts are starting to deteriorate a little bit. The concession stand to me — we have no water, we have no drains, they (Bellefonte Area School District) said there’s nothing to tie into it — which I’m sure is probably true.”
Bellefonte’s Rogers Stadium, the home of the Red Raiders’ football team, undertook a $7 million renovation project from spring 2018 to fall 2019. The school district provided $3 million in funding, along with a $3 million grant and $1 million from fundraising dollars. The stadium is located at 830 E. Bishop St. and seats a capacity of 3,870 fans, featuring renovated bleachers, a turf field and a modern press box.
With the precedent being set for the football program to receive a major investment, the parents of softball players have asked the school district to improve upon their facilities.
Pleas from parents
Lauck and other Bellefonte softball parents, Christina Manning and Jennifer Barnhart, presented their case in February to the school board for more funding for the softball field. The parents were able to secure funding through previous discussions with the school board for new turf in the batting cages, instead of the gravel that is currently there.
But concerns remain — the cracks in the concrete of the dugout, the need for new bullpens for both home and away teams’ pitchers to warm up in, the red clay brick in the batter’s box and bringing in a hose to water the infield.
During the February meeting, Manning presented photos of the issues with the field. The facility hasn’t changed since her team finished second in the state championships in 1997, other than the scoreboard and donated batters box, she said.
Barnhart told board members that “students need something to believe in,” speaking of extracurricular activities as the harbinger of higher engagement in the classroom.
“These kids look forward to that,” Barnhart said. “It gives something other than just the studying, and watching my husband who teaches, he will talk about students who don’t perform as well who may have just given up and not shown up to school who now show up because they need that attendance to compete that day. Even though they may not be on an All-American scholarship, they’re still pushing to do better academically because of what it means to them.”
At the February meeting, Bellefonte Area School District Board of Directors President Jeff Steiner addressed some of the concerns from parents. The fencing will be extended to 12 feet high and an eight-foot fence will be constructed to protect catchers in the bullpen area, along with a net to be hung near the field to protect them from foul balls, he said.
“(We) are currently working with the architect and the Centre Region Code to re-install the bleachers that were displaced because of the sinkhole and remedy the water control from the fields,” Steiner said at the meeting. “There’s also a note about replacing the side fence along the JV baseball field.”
There are no plans to replace the fields at this time, Steiner wrote in a recent email.
The school board approved funding for home run fencing for the softball field in its March 15 meeting. The fencing will cost $9,715. In the meantime, the push is still on from the softball parents for a replacement through funding from school district, the community or a donor but there is no current fundraising at this time.
