MVHS New Field Newspaper Articles

A possible field of dreams - District taking bids, considering ball field on Mounds View campus

 

Shoreview Press - Feb 12, 2008

 

By Stephen Harding, Staff Writer

SHOREVIEW - By spring of next year, the Mounds View high school baseball team could be hosting games at its new ball field - a $150,000 facility at the site of the current soccer practice fields.

Mounds View's Director of Human Resources and Operations John Ward said several bids have come in for building the field, but the school board has yet to vote on approving the plan. He said the basic blueprint for the field will be district-funded if approved, though booster clubs may fund elements like bullpens, scoreboards and bleachers.  

The proposed field would be placed on parts of the three existing soccer fields but would not interfere with boys and girls soccer, since the teams now play their games primarily at the school's stadium field. Part of the new ball field would include an outfield wall that could be taken down each August.

"With the realization that the upper fields were not being fully utilized because of the desire of summer soccer programs to play on the varsity stadium, we felt perhaps the best solution was an on-campus field," Ward said. "The soccer fields will still be useable; however, the upper fields will not have the same amount of space in the summer as before."

The project started in 2002 when a task force convened to look at Mounds View School District's outdoor athletic facilities.

 "A review of that group's recommendations found that only a dedicated baseball field at Mounds View High School has not been realized," Ward said.

Initially, school officials thought that the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) development in Arden Hills might provide space for the new baseball field. However, Ward said, such a deal has not come to pass.

Mounds View Athletic Director Bob Madison said the baseball field the team uses now, Kohler-Meadows Park, is leased from Vadnais Heights. He said the team and Vadnais Heights have a good working relationship, but it's not an ideal situation.

"The field is not in our control," he said. "The way it is maintained, the grading and raking is different than what we would do. There are no structures or dugouts. If it rains, the opposing team would have to run to its buses; ours would have to run to their cars or stand out in the rain."

Madison said Mounds View is the only baseball team in the metro area that does not have its own baseball field. The team has been playing its home games at Kohler-Meadows Park - which was always considered a temporary solution - for about seven years.

 

The baseball team is also at a disadvantage, according to Madison, by not having a home field near the school. He said most teams take batting and fielding practice at their home fields before getting on the bus to go to an away game, but it isn't practical to go to Vadnais Heights for pre-game practices.