By Craig Juer -- Daily Staff Writer

STEPHENS CITY — Backhoes, dirt piles and stacks of cinderblocks surround the confines, inside which 16 young men complete their work in the heat of the afternoon sun.

The chimes of heavy machinery in reverse gear and the rumble of engines decorate the air, but not with the same frequency as the pinging of horsehide striking aluminum.

The construction workers are readying the field for games that won't be played this springtime. The Sherando baseball players are readying themselves for games that will be played anywhere but there.

"We were hopeful that we might get a few games on the field," Sherando coach Pepper Martin said. "But when we went to the last construction meeting and they gave us a spreadsheet on when certain things are going to be finished, and we saw the final completion date is June 20, we knew that for all intents and purposes, all hopes of us playing at least one game on our newly renovated facility was not going to happen this year."

Originally, Sherando's renovated ballpark, intended to make the Warriors' unnamed home the class of the Northwestern District, was slated to open April 11. But in early March, as the team was just getting outdoors for the first time, Martin noticed a major flaw in the way the construction was taking shape. The locations of the new foul-line bleachers and the dugouts had been flip-flopped, and the dugouts were being dug even with the shallow part of the outfield.

"The dugouts essentially began beyond where third and first base were," Martin said. "That was really, really a bad set-up."

Rather than laying down defiantly in front of the bulldozer to halt progress, Martin spoke to athletic director Jason Barbe, principal John Nelson and buildings and grounds director Larry Rickard, urging them to intervene. With construction at a standstill as new plans were drawn up, home games slipped steadily off the calendar.

"Personally, I was always hoping they would start the field earlier, but they never got around to it until late," senior infielder Cody Smallwood said. "I guess about midway through the season, I just said 'OK, let's just forget about it and go on and play.'"

On April 29, Barbe sent media outlets an e-mail confirming what was already obvious to the players: the final two home games — Thursday against Millbrook and tonight against Skyline — would be played on the road.

"There's a tradeoff," Martin explained, referring to the decision to correct the dugouts. "I could either leave it as it is, and we could have maybe gotten a few games in here, but then it's not going to be corrected. Or we can get it done right, at the expense of basically being the 'road Warriors' the entire season.

"We think the sacrifice is going to be worth it."

The Warriors played a game at a backup site in Stephens City, Andy McDonald Field, and beat Clarke County 5-0 on April 2nd. But McDonald Field was built for 13- and 14-year-olds, and has a 300-foot fence all the way around.

"Routine fly balls on this field could have been home runs," Martin said. "With key district games coming up, we really didn't want to be put in that situation."

***

With its pristine field, clear views and raised, concrete concourse, Hott Field at James Wood High School is the "standard-bearer" of Northwestern District ballfields, according to Martin. He spoke glowingly about the Colonels' home and Millbrook's 5-year-old ballpark, which features a spacious press box and concourse, and a quiet place to sit on a hill beneath the woods beyond center field.

Sherando's field was once the envy of the other schools in the Frederick County area. Before Millbrook opened and before Hott Field was built, only the Warriors had an on-campus field. The Colonels and Handley both played at Bridgeforth Field at Jim Barnett Park, where the Judges still host games. Martin said part of the impetus for the field renovations was to get to "an equitable level to James Wood's and Millbrook's facility, which is only fair."

There were other reasons for the upgrades. The positioning of the bleachers and the dugouts afforded spectators precious few unobstructed-view seats.

"If you were on the home side and they hit one to third, left field, left-center," Martin said, "you had to actually get out of your seat and lean to see if they were going to catch the ball."

The other factor was the distance between the fair lines and the confining structures. The backstop and dugouts were closer to fair territory than they should have been.

"It's supposed to be a minimum of 50 feet," Martin said of the distance between fair territory and the mouth of the dugout. "Sixty feet recommended."

When the field is completed (ostensibly in June), it will feature netting between foul ground and the bleachers, more foul territory, clear sight lines for fans, sunken dugouts and, in a first for local high school baseball, wheelchair ramps into each dugout.

"It has to now be ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] approved," Martin said. "When Millbrook built theirs, their dugout got put in right before that was passed."

A former scorekeeper for Sherando, Dallas Green, was wheelchair-bound, and had to be carried into the dugout before games. Article 4.1.2 of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (as amended through September 2002) mandates wheelchair access to the boundaries of playing surfaces in new recreation construction.

"It's totally understandable," Martin said.

When the park is finished, it will be the most up-to-date facility in the district.

"Hopefully it will be a really nice stadium," junior infielder Blake Adams said. "Hopefully it will be done next year."

***

Tonight should be Senior Night at the ballfield in Stephens City. Smallwood, Chris Tripp, Jeff Porter, Tyler Simmers, Doug Davis and Zach Mason ought to be escorting their parents out to the third-base line to be acknowledged, bouquets in their mothers' arms. Instead, because it would be "uncomfortable" to host such proceedings at a foreign park, Senior Night will be held at the team's end-of-the-year picnic. And tonight, the Warriors play at Skyline's beautiful, recently renovated park, Bing Crosby Stadium.

In one breath, Smallwood relishes every win the Warriors take on an opponent's field.

"I have more fun beating teams on their field than I do on our field anyway," he said.

But in the next, he realizes that his injury-riddled career will conclude with precious few at-bats in his home confines.

"I think next year it will hit me that I haven't played here much at all," he said. "This has always been my favorite place to play. I love playing here."

Other than the fact that their collapsible batting shell is constantly in place (to account for the lack of a backstop), the Warriors practice as normal.

"The construction crew has been very accommodating," Martin said, pausing as a builder caught his attention to flip him a wayward baseball. "Unfortunately, when we take pre-game in[field] and out, we haven't been quite as accommodating to them."

As far as the games go, the Warriors have taken their road banishment in stride. They aren't letting it be an excuse for any of their losses (the Warriors are 10-9 overall, and 6-7 in the district with a likely fourth seed for the tournament).

"If we're the away team, we've still got to score runs," Tripp said. "If we're the home team, we've got to score runs.

"It doesn't matter where it is."

If the Warriors won't allow that the season-long road trip is affecting their play, the seniors do concede that they're missing out on something special.

"Being a senior, it really just isn't fun at all," Tripp said last Friday. "When we came out today to practice, I saw how nice it's all going to be, because this is the first time I've seen the foundation to play on and everything.

"This is going to be an amazing field to play on, but I'm not going to be here. We've still got to go out and win, but it'd be nice to play here."

*Contact Craig Juer at cjuer@nvdaily.com

Comment on this story | View Comments |