EDITOR: We have seen the letters to the editor, read the
articles and editorials in The Times, attended school board
meetings and heard the call for improvements to the Britton School
athletic fields. Frankly
… we agree! Morgan Hill Pop Warner Football needs a home to call
its own.
EDITOR:
We have seen the letters to the editor, read the articles and editorials in The Times, attended school board meetings and heard the call for improvements to the Britton School athletic fields. Frankly… we agree! Morgan Hill Pop Warner Football needs a home to call its own.
But before proposals are written, drawings rendered, permission granted and permits pulled, we think the community should be aware of another organization that calls Britton Middle School its home field.
Morgan Hill Pony Baseball has been a part of the local recreation and sports community for more than 20 years, only about half as long as Pop Warner states it has been around the community, according to the Morgan Hill Raider website. But in those 20 years Pony Baseball has made significant contributions to the community and to the Morgan Hill School District – contributions arguably unmatched by any other non profit league, sports or recreation organization in the city.
Let’s start with facilities. There are five baseball diamonds and one T-ball backstop presently in place at Britton. Twenty five years ago there were two, a varsity baseball field and a softball field, which were part of the original Live Oak High School. Those two existing fields were reconfigured by MHPB into what are now known as Bronco 1 and Pony 1 serving the Bronco (11-12 year old) and Pony (13-14 year old) divisions.
MHPB also built the three other diamonds and the T-ball site to serve our Shetland (5-6 year old), Pinto (7-8 year old) and Mustang (9-10 year old) divisions. And this did not just entail cementing a home plate into the ground and calling it a baseball field. The league built backstops, dugouts and infield diamonds with grass and raised pitching mounds conforming to International Pony Baseball standards. Sprinkler systems were re-plumbed or added to help keep the fields green.
Later on it was MHPB – nobody else – that built the Snack Shack and lavatory facilities on the site. All of this was done without any money from the school district or any other organization. To be fair, the city of Morgan Hill did grant MHPB some money to refurbish the girls softball field 20 years ago.
As league growth and need required, MHPB expanded the playing fields. Today there are two playing fields for the Pinto and Bronco divisions at Burnett School, along with another T-ball site for the Shetland players. Our most recently built field, Pony 2, was built at the El Toro School. At both sites MHPB took open school land and, with proper permission, built fully developed baseball diamonds, with backstops, dugouts and irrigation. All were built at no cost to the MHSD.
Subsequent to the installation of the ball field at El Toro, developers built homes adjacent to the outfield. When the homeowners complained about baseballs hitting their homes they complained to the city and the school district. Representatives from MHPB met with the homeowners, the developer, and the then MHSD facilities director. At no cost to the city, the developer, the homeowner or the school district, MHPB installed 20 foot high poles and netting to protect the homes. No other parties, public or private, participated in helping cover the cost of the netting, which cost approximately $11,000.
But it doesn’t end there. Morgan Hill Pony Baseball paid for and installed the junior varsity baseball field and backstop at Live Oak High School, as well as the new infield and irrigation system for the varsity field at Live Oak. We’re still awaiting permission to install pitching machines and batting cages at the Britton site. We already have the materials.
Let’s talk about participation. In the spring of 2003 this community organization, Morgan Hill Pony Baseball, served 736 players ranging in age from 5-16 years. There were 64 teams and a minimum of 192 managers and coaches involved. The league played 504 “regular season” games and dozens more when counting post season play and All Star tournaments. The league hires Morgan Hill students and trains them to be umpires and scorekeepers. Those students earned in excess of $24,000 over the course of the season for their efforts.
Let’s talk about maintenance. While volunteers are difficult to come by, there are plenty beyond the managers and coaches. While most are not visible to the community, if you want to find some of those rare birds, come out in late winter or early spring. You can usually find them pulling weeds, painting backstops or spreading special dirt called “goldfines” at a cost of about $350 per load around the infields, all with the intent of giving your children the most realistic baseball experience they can have … playing baseball on a grass rather than all dirt infield. You will also find them cleaning up trash left under the bleachers or elsewhere on the grounds, riding league-owned, commercial-grade lawnmowers to cut the grass to a shorter height than the district has time to keep up with, and hand watering the infields with garden hoses because they want to keep them as nice as possible. You can occasionally find our volunteers aerating the infields, spreading seed or placing sod to fill bare spots. We just don’t throw dirt around to fill in holes.
And while the grass may not be a rye, a bluegrass or some type of hybrid, we’re happy with it as long as it is cut and it is green.
Would we like to see Britton’s fields improved? Sure, who wouldn’t! We need to repair or replace backstops, benches and bleachers and will do so. But we have already done a lot to improve these facilities over the years. We’ve spent lots of time, treasure and talent to make it happen and will continue to do so.
If Pop Warner wants a new home, great. We wish them success and extend our support where possible. But we also ask you, the community and the school district, to remember Morgan Hill Pony Baseball. We ask you to consider what we have done and what we continue to do for the youth of our community and in our mutually beneficial relationship with MHSD. The impact of Pop Warner’s proposals for Britton School, based upon what we all have learned with the Live Oak football field experience, would shut us down for a year. We don’t think that should be allowed to happen.
Bob Morris, president,
Morgan Hill Pony Baseball
and executive board members Mike Rusch, vice-president; Steve Barber, secretary; Rob Conlan, treasurer; Gregg Hall, player agent
