By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Any baseball or softball team, whether they’re associated with the Great Bend Recreation Commission or traveling team, can fill out a form to request a ballfield for practice. While not guaranteed your first choice, the Rec Commission puts all the requests into a master plan for each spring and summer.
All the fields in town get plenty of use between practices and games, so much
so that there are sometimes a shortage. GBRC Sports Director Paul Zamarripa said
the Rec staff tries to make use of all the fields, including those at the Great
Bend Sports Complex.
"With Field 1 just high school baseball, last year we added Blast Ball to it," said Zamarripa. "So we had our 3-4-year-old practices on it when it's not being used by the high school. We can spread a lot of kids out on that field."
GBRC Director Chris Umphres said practice technically opens up April 15 but with nicer weather, teams are out earlier.
Umphres noted approximately 95% of
all the teams that practice and compete in Great Bend can be housed on a softball
field. Harms baseball field, near the 281 Bypass on the east side of town, can
only accommodate 14-and-over baseball, high school and college. Between play at
Al Burns Field and the two baseball fields at the Sports Complex, Harms Field
is often left idle. Umphres has discussed possibly transforming the baseball
field into two softball fields.
"One barrier for the city is to tear up a sodded infield that has irrigation and supposed to be a baseball field," said Umphres. "We have it drawn up on how you can get two fields in there. We'd keep the exact same lighting, keep the same fence border. You'd turn two fields in so when the lights turn on, it would light both fields at the same time."
Umphres added there has been some interest from private companies that might
sponsor the transformation of Harms Field.