HADLEY — At the April 24 School Committee meeting, Park and Recreation Commissioner Jim Shea went before the group with a problem and a solution.

“We have a severe shortage of space for the girls to practice softball,” he said.

The lack of playing and practice surfaces for softball was not new according to Shea as several fields in the town were either permanently unavailable or gone completely but the current issue had been brought up to him two years earlier.

Shea said Mara Breen, a parent, coach and the head of the softball program, asked him, “Is there any way we could get a field built somewhere?”

Shea said Breen had told him the softball players often had to wait until the baseball teams were finished playing or practicing before the girls could get on the field.

“They actually had to merge with Amherst in order to get some more field time,” Shea said.

Breen, who is currently the vice president of Amherst Baseball also oversees softball for Hadley as well as Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury. She has been with the program for 13 years and said the push for a youth softball field in town preceded her.

Currently, Breen’s program makes use of one of the baseball fields behind Hadley Elementary School and two years ago they were given permission to “skin it” or remove the infield grass to facilitate playing softball as well as baseball. She also pointed out that the relationship over field use between her program and the Cal Ripken teams is good.

“The issue is there are literally no youth softball fields in town, the only softball fields are the two at Hopkins [Academy] and of course there are two baseball fields at Hopkins, so the point was that because of the fields behind the elementary school, the baseball teams weren’t competing with anyone for fields whereas we were always waiting for Hopkins and Hopkins always had first priority,” she said.

Addressing the School Committee, Shea relayed a similar story from Park Commission Chair Steve Higgins, who had told him of the difficulty in finding practice time and space for his daughter when she played softball. The girls often having to work around the field use by the Cal Ripken baseball teams, whose coaches and parents helped maintained the field.

Shea said he then began asking around town to see what could be done.

He also approached state Rep. Dan Carey to inquire about funding for a project. After Steve Konieczny with Carl’s Excavating provided a free estimate of the potential costs of the project, Shea said he went back to Carey and asked for $100,000.

Shea said Carey told him he would try and indeed pushed forward a measure providing that number in funding.

Shea scouted several locations in town to put a field dedicated to softball play and practice but those fell through due either to feasibility or economic constraints.

Shea told the committee he had reviewed other possibilities including near the old Hadley Hall, Zatryka Park and near the transfer station.

Then, looking at a map and at the existing baseball fields on three corners of the square behind HES, Shea said he got an idea.

“I’d been there a thousand times but never looked at it…we could probably do it there” he said.

After speaking with Principal Jennifer Dowd, Superintendent Anne McKenzie and Facilities Director Jeff Mish, who were all onboard with the plan, Shea said it was then he went before the School Committee for their approval.

“I looked at spots everywhere and this makes the most sense,” he said.

“It would make it a lot easier for us because we don’t have to do parking, we don’t have to worry about drainage, we don’t have to worry about all these other hurdles that I would have to go through to build a completely off-site place,” Shea told the committee.

“I put up a memorandum of understanding that says that Park and Rec will be responsible for getting funding, for maintaining the field, for doing all that stuff. Nothing is going to come from the town resources, or the school resources and the school obviously gets right of first refusal in terms of use, “he said.

According to Shea, the new field for softball use will be cared for in a similar fashion to how the town’s Cal Ripken Baseball (HCRB) diamonds are maintained.

“Every year we go out, we get as many parents as we can and the kids come out and help and we get all of the weeds out the field, bring in more field mix, get the weeds out the dugouts, just spruce them up and make them look nice,” he added.
The same rules apply to the new field.

“These girls are going to have their own field, it’s going to be maintained by their coaches, their parents…they need a place of their own to play without having to ask anybody for permission, “he said.

Shea has a son who plays Cal Ripken baseball, and he was at the time unaware as to the extent of the problem until, he said, someone came forward.

“The boys sports are so much more dominant in town than the girls sports, there wasn’t really a push for it because nobody ever made the ask, nobody ever did the footwork to do it so when I had somebody come to me, I figured, ‘hey, I could make some kind of a positive impact on these girls and they could have a place they could call home,’” Shea said.

Breen is pleased to see the plan moving forward.

“It’s very exciting to now be able to say we will have a dedicated softball field,” Breen said.

Outlining the rough plans before the School Committee, Shea said the current field for younger players will be redesigned and refurbished for dedicated softball use and a new diamond with a smaller outfield created to accommodate play by those smaller children. The work is planned for the summer months so as not to interfere with the school year.

Shea also said the Park and Recreation directors were very appreciative of the efforts put forth by Carey, who helped secure $100,000 in funding for the field project. He also noted to the board that he expects the work to be accomplished without much financial contribution from the Park and Recreation department. However, there are additional funds available if the project exceeds the allotment already received.

“We have money that was gifted to Park and Rec back in the early 80s and it, over time people have forgotten about it for years and never touched it and it became a significant amount of money. And so, anything that were to go over we would be able to make sure it got completed and it didn’t just sit there not being able to be used,” Shea said.

The School Committee recommended the proposal for review by counsel but also passed a unanimous vote of support.