The new artificial playing surface for Cullman High School’s baseball field (seen here on Monday, Jan. 28) is scheduled to be finished in early March. In the meantime, the Bearcats will be practicing at Heritage Park. (Nick Griffin for The Cullman Tribune)
CULLMAN – There are some big changes coming for Cullman Baseball this season, and not just in the starting lineup. After dealing with drainage issues at Bill Shelton Field for several years, Cullman High School has opted to replace the natural playing surface with turf to alleviate those concerns while also helping the Bearcat baseball teams get more practice time.
Head Coach Brent Patterson explained in detail the drainage problems with the field and why he agrees it was necessary to make a change.
“With the grade of the field the way it was, it was very hard for water to run off of it and water would just sit. We struggled to get water off of the outfield and it would just sit in center field kind of like a bowl so you couldn’t get it to run in any direction,” Patterson said. “Then, when extremely hard rains came, the water would fill up the bowl and have to go somewhere so it ended up running to the areas where the shortstop and second baseman play and get on the infield. We would have the tarp down, but it would roll up underneath the tarp from the outfield and soak the infield.”
Patterson continued, “For a long time, it would just take all our infield material, which is extremely expensive stuff, and it would wash it right off the hills on the first base and third base side. In order to kind of alleviate that we tried to change the direction the water goes and stop it from running off the infield and we created kind of like ponds. So now instead of a one-day delay we have a three-day rainout, but you had to pick your poison,” he said. “It was either taking all of your infield material every time it rained, or you stop it and it turns into a lake. We didn’t have a lot of choices and we’ve basically used every Band-aid over the last 20 years that could be done. It got to the point where the people trying to help us told us this was never going to get done unless you fix the root of the problem.”
A lot of thought went into choosing exactly what type of artificial surface would go on the field and Patterson believes they’ve selected a turf that will be comparable to a natural field while having all the advantages of an artificial one.
“The company that won the bid for the turf is a company called FieldTurf, and the turf that we have chosen is the best turf they offer; it’s called DoublePlay and we could choose the speed. We went with DoublePlay Natural because it’s a happy medium,” he said. “It’s not slow, it’s not fast and it’s basically like playing on a great natural surface. We’ve played in some SEC stadiums and some big-time venues and when you step out there it feels like you’re playing on turf. Well, this turf is going to feel like playing on one of those really nice natural fields.”
On top of eliminating a lot of the field’s problems with water, the new playing surface will allow all three Bearcat baseball teams (ninth grade, junior varsity and varsity) to get more practice time on the field. Patterson is excited to take advantage of the new-found practice time that will be available because of the changes.
“We had to make the decision when we knew we were going to redo the field, whether to do it natural or turf. Because we don’t really have anywhere for practices, we lose practice whenever it rains and you’re losing practice for three teams. To make it more useable, turf was just a very good option. Obviously, it’s an expensive deal but over the long haul, it may not be much different in terms of how much money you have to spend on the field every year,” Patterson said. “What it’s going to do is allow us to practice in bad conditions; when there’s a JV or a ninth-grade game here at 5 p.m. it’ll allow us to practice up until 20 minutes before the game starts because there’s no prep work. So, in a way it took care of the field problem, but it’s also helping to alleviate some of the practice facility problems we had. Every sport on campus uses our football field, which is a great thing, but we don’t get a whole lot of opportunities down there so this is really going to help more than just us because it’ll free up space, but it’s definitely going to help our practice situation, too.”
Monday was the first official practice day for the Bearcats, and while they’re waiting on the field to be resurfaced, they’ll be getting ready for the season at Heritage Park.
“(Cullman Parks, Recreation and Sports Tourism Executive Director) Nathan Anderson and the park and rec guys have been phenomenal. All those guys at Heritage are rolling out the red carpet and just providing a gigantic stress relief for us,” said Patterson. “Honestly, if we didn’t have that, I don’t know what we’d be doing. It would be very tough.”
Coach didn’t want to leave anyone out when thanking people for their work on the project, but he had to mention Cullman High’s Athletic Director Mark Stephens. Patterson said Stephens was a huge part of getting the field project underway.
“Over the years we’ve talked about how much the community has supported our program and our schools in general, but because they’ve supported it for so long, our school sees how important it is to our community. It was an important investment and it made it worthwhile for the school to look into it. I hate to mention names because you’re going to leave people out, but Mark Stephens was so instrumental in getting it pushed forward and helping make people aware that our field was literally dangerous to play on,” Patterson said. “We were practicing in parking lots over by the police station and at the bottom of the hill below the softball field and Mark being the high school AD was doing what you would want an AD to do. He was pushing to help the program, and in helping our program he has helped the others as well by opening up practice facilities for them, too.”
The community has always shown a lot of support for the Cullman Baseball program, but even Patterson was slightly overwhelmed by how many people were happy to help with this process. He takes it as another reminder to be thankful for the love and support they’ve received, and he wants to make sure his players feel the same way.
“Our board, our superintendent, (CHS Principal) Mrs. (Kim) Hall and so many people were instrumental in bringing this about and fighting for the program. Just having a grateful, thankful attitude in general helps, and that’s what I’m trying to relay to our guys. This is a major deal. I don’t know the exact number, but I can’t think of more than two high school fields in Alabama that are turfed. This is a major investment, and just having a grateful spirit, a grateful attitude is incredibly important and that’s what we’re reminding ourselves of. Just to be thankful that there are so many people that were interested and invested in our program to make something like this happen.”
Cullman Baseball will kick off the 2019 season in mid-February.
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