Challenges aside, field construction in D211 a good thing

Attention all high school baseball and softball coaches: save those old couch cushions.

They come in handy when Mother Nature wreaks her rainy Springtime havoc.

In the never-ending quest to ready their wet, soggy and sometimes even flooded fields for play, baseball and softball coaches have left no stone unturned ... and in some cases, no couch cushion untouched.

Fremd softball coach Josh Teschner knows the drill well.

Dealing with a messy, muddy field on a regular basis had become as much of his job as making lineups and teaching batting and pitching technique.

"As a staff, we'd change into our muddy clothes, go outside in the morning after a rain during our free periods, and we would roll the water out of the outfield. We'd take the covers off of these old couch cushions and sop up the water with those," Teschner said. "Sometimes, we would use a sump pump to get the water out. I cannot tell you the depths we'd go to make sure our girls could play."

Now, a new field and drainage system at Fremd is ensuring that.

Thanks to a massive District 211 renovation project, Fremd is unveiling this spring new softball and baseball fields that have been updated and completely redesigned and reconstructed to better handle water and weather conditions. New drainage systems have been put into place to help make the couch cushions obsolete.

Meanwhile, Conant is about a year behind Fremd in the same process. Baseball and softball fields there are currently torn up and under construction for the same reasons, and the Cougars' teams are playing their games and conducting practices off site.

Next spring, Conant will unveil its new baseball and softball fields as well, bringing a conclusion to District 211's long-running efforts to revamp and improve the baseball and softball fields on all of its five high school campuses.

'No worse field than ours'

"There was really no worse field than ours when it came to drainage," Teschner said. "It really was a train wreck. We'd get just a one-hour sprinkle, and the next thing you know, we'd be canceled, or we'd have to play at 5:15 instead of 4:30. It was very frustrating, and embarrassing, really, for our program.

"But now that the field has been redone, I don't see us having problems with that ever. The district really did a great job of trying to get our new field pristine. And from a pure product and playability standpoint, it is beautiful. It is a beautiful complex and it drains perfectly. After that crazy snow we had this past Sunday, we could have had our field up and ready to play by 4:30 on Monday. It's a remarkable complex."

The Fremd softball field was moved from just outside the main athletic entrance to the school to behind the football stadium. The coaches and players were skeptical at first about losing their prime real estate, but have seen the benefits of the new field.

"Our girls loved playing by that main athletic entrance because we would get a lot of fans stopping by our games, other athletes, parents of other athletes, so we weren't too excited when we heard our field was being moved," Teschner said. "But now that we're on it, our kids are incredibly appreciative of how nice this new field is, and they take pride in it. The girls are out there raking it and putting down tarps because they want the field to stay perfect. They are really taking a lot of pride in it."

Patience is a virtue

Meanwhile, the baseball field at Fremd stayed in the same location but was completely excavated to add a new drainage system.

New permanent fences were also added to both the baseball and softball fields to make them exclusive to those teams.

"It's never easy taking on major projects like this," Fremd athletic director David Dick said. "But I appreciate the patience shown by our coaches and athletes and parents. At times, it was stressful, and there were headaches. It's been worth it. The fields are great now."

Part of the headaches involved at Fremd are what coaches and athletes and administrators at Conant are experiencing now.

While Fremd's fields were under construction, they were completely unusable, so the baseball and softball teams, all levels, had to practice and play their games elsewhere.

Finding available fields, from Boomers Stadium to Harper College to local park districts wasn't always easy. Arranging transportation to and from those sites could be a logistical nightmare.

Conant athletic director John Kane can relate.

None of the baseball or softball fields at Conant are currently usable. The varsity teams are practicing at park districts and playing a lot of "home" games on the road. For instance, they have played games in which they are designated the "home" team, but are actually playing on the opponent's field.

"It's pretty challenging," Kane said. "It's a lot of juggling of space and times and buses. We use so many more buses now. Sometimes we double up and we've got two different teams riding the same bus trying to get places.

"We were aware that it was going to be a trying year, but I think everyone is handling it well. The district has been great to work with and we're all just really ready for the next spring season. We think the fields are going to be really nice."

At Conant, all the baseball and softball fields are keeping the same general footprint, but many improvements and changes have been made that will be immediately noticeable.

Conant and district officials worked with architects on 25 different looks and configurations that would maximize the efficiency and aesthetics of the fields, a benefit of being the last school in the district to undergo renovations. All the snags that other schools faced have been avoided while the best features at the other schools have be implemented.

All together now

The four major fields for the softball and baseball programs at Conant will sit clustered together with a new walking path surrounding to connect them. New batting cages and warmup mounds have been placed strategically and sight lines for fans were taken into heavy consideration.

The pitch of all the fields has also been changed to improve drainage and new drainage systems have been installed as well, which should eliminate the standing water often common in the outfields, sometimes as deep as four feet.

New sod and backstops will complete the look. And the fields will be fully enclosed.

"We are really excited to see what the finished product will look like," Conant baseball coach Derek Fivelson said. "Updating those fields is long overdue.

"We took pride in what we had, but compared to other schools nearby or in the district, our fields really lacked in quality in some important areas, and it's nice that that will be changing."

That's what keeps Fivleson and his players going this season - the hope and excitement that change brings.

Fivelson drives his team around to practices and games in a mini bus and says that the logistics of this season have been tough. But the players have done a good job of keeping the bigger picture in mind.

"You have to rush as quick as you can after school so you can leave (for off-site practices and games) in a timely manner so you can get a full warmup in," said Danny LaRosa, a junior on the Conant baseball team. "(But) we all knew what we were going to have to deal with this year and we are dealing with it well."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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