Exceeding The Need: JHS’s New Softball Field
By: Isabella Bagnaro
Photo Credit: Jenksps Instagram
Jenks Softball has been around for years providing players with experience and happy memories. And the biggest thing about Jenks softball? They step up to the plate and bring grit and excellence to bat.
Sadly, the same could not be said about their old field. About 12-14 years ago a man named John Woods - who previously worked for the Drillers before employment here - was hired away from Jenks, his role at the school was solely to manage and take care of our softball field. The old field was located on a landfill, making maintenance a full-time job. Woods would aerate and bring in dirt and sand to fill the field and level it out wherever it needed not just for aesthetics, but to provide players with an even and safe playing space. After he retired that job was divided and fell on our school's maintenance and the softball coaches including slow-pitch coach, Todd Williams.
The field simply required too much work, and the landfill proved more difficult than anticipated. Players would have to work around divots and strange unlevelings on the field. These undulations could easily cause a player to roll an ankle and affect their performance.
Two years ago, in 2022, discussions of improving the softball field along with the baseball field, gained traction. The baseball field only needed their turf renewed, but the same could not be said for softball. The softball field’s bleachers were a donation from an old professional stadium that were welded together years ago, the dugouts cramped and outdated, along with the obvious issues regarding the field itself and what lay under it which resulted in concrete needing to be laid under the new turf. All of these resulted in a $3 million dollar project, compared to baseball's $1 million dollars for the turf on its own.
Getting the funds for this took longer than the remodel itself. After two years of bidding, enough money had been acquired to begin and finish the project. But another problem arose: baseball's field could be re-done in their off-season, but softball didn’t have an “off-season” due to slow and fast pitch season schedules.
“It was difficult in the Sense that we missed a lot of school due to traveling,” said softball senior Paiton Hedges.
The solution to this was away games. They would begin construction at the conclusion of fast pitch, and construct during slow pitch season. But what about the seniors?
Due to our possession of an indoor facility, after working out the scheduling conflicts, slow-pitch had a place to practice for the season, and would play at away stadiums, and for underclassmen who would be returning the next season, while discouraging, it wasn’t a huge conflict. But what about the seniors?
Though playing so many away games proved to have its challenges, Hedges said that “It was fun to have the memories on the bus and the late night drives.”
It was important to Williams that the seniors got to play on their home field at least once, so they urged construction to be efficient so the seniors could still have home-game memories.
The urging worked! Construction wrapped up in April and the softball team got to play their last game on home-turf. Renovated and level home turf. And it wasn’t just a typical game, it was an opening ceremony for the community, and Dr. Butterfield, the Jenks Superintendent, even threw the first pitch!
The returning softball players now have a safe and beautiful field, and the seniors got to leave with fond closing memories of their last high school game (that they won by the way).
