It has come to the attention of the Park City Utah baseball community that the school board has been putting considerable time in evaluating the Park City baseball community and high school program and field needs. We thank you for your time and consideration.
The entire community would greatly appreciate the Park City School Board providing the high school baseball and softball program appropriate and adequate consideration by assisting in providing adequate, safe, fan appropriate, and seasonal usable facilities in the way of turf fields and other improvements.
The youth and high school baseball program is working to not only continue to build and develop a baseball program in Park City, but provide an avenue for these young men and women to become better members of their community.
I’ve been coaching in this town for 11 years, and when we first moved to town, we thought for sure that our now graduated son would be attending a new and approved high school and also playing on a renovated baseball field that could be used during the baseball season.
It is now many years later and we are no closer to reality than when we moved into this community to become part of the growing baseball community.
My entire family has provided many hours of sweat equity, as well as donated countless
hours of work on and off the fields. My wife was on the board for 10 years of our youth
baseball program and board president for four years. In that time, we have seen this
program grow and touch so many individuals.
There was considerable discussion at the June school board meeting. The board expressed concerns about spending $7 million on facilities that serve 120 high school students. The youth program has about 105 players involved (8U-14U age groups) totaling 225 players a year.
In my years of coaching in Park City we have been able to work with around 1,400 local players (youth and high school). I do not think this is a waste of time and funds!
There was a statement that if the baseball and softball programs should even continue if the board wasn’t willing to provide them with funding to improve their facilities.
I believe we have far fewer students involved in band, stagecraft, acting, etc. Should we take away their instruments, tear down the Eccles Theater? For one to make this comment, it would be blasphemy.
This number does not account for all of the tournaments (local leagues, Rocky Mountain School of Baseball and Triple-Crown) which brought thousands of players and families to Park City every summer and generated countless revenues for our local economy.
Yes, we need to improve our facilities and continue to grow these programs. We have many talented players in this community that count on this program to provide them an avenue for potential scholarships for college.
If a full new facility cannot be supported, there are many items we could do to our existing facilities to make them more usable and at a far less expenditure.
We need to turf the field so that we can use the fields during the baseball season. If we cannot turf the entire field, we need to at least look at turfing the infield, home plate, and pitching mound.
The baseball field needs a new back screen so that we can retain baseballs from being hit into the street and into neighbors’ yards. It is only a matter of time that a student or
spectator gets hurt chasing baseball down the street.
We need ADA compliant access to the fields. Currently we are not in compliant with ADA.
We need new dugouts. Current dugouts are too confined, too close to the
field play and restrict spectators from seeing the whole field.
We need a better spectator area, which could be easily attainable to dig out or level off behind home plate and provide a concrete area with some bleachers, but still allow for people to utilize their own chairs.
Both programs could share proper field grooming equipment. We are currently using an old lawnmower and what looks to be like a piece of chain-link fence that we use
for a drag on the infield. There is much better equipment available to ensure that the field is properly maintained for safety of the players.
Another question was asked: “Why would phase one be softball, baseball and not rectangular sports fields?”
This one is an easy question to answer from the baseball perspective. The city continues to buy land and build rectangle fields. In the past few years, we have seen at least four new fields built, with more with approved funds to be built.
How many new baseball fields have been built?
These rectangle fields can be built to accommodate baseball as well. With some forethought, a baseball diamond can be built into the field. There are many companies that provide temporary fencing that can be placed in the outfield so baseball can be played.
The one rectangle field that is owned by the city and plugged for 90-foot bases could be used for baseball/softball, but there is not a temporary fence on location and there are soccer and lacrosse players utilizing this field when there are countless other fields they could use.
We had six home games this year and traveled for 25 games, which requires the students to leave school early and miss education time, social interaction with other students, and of course family time. Three of these home games were due to a winning season. We hosted regionals on our field.
I’ve traveled all over the United States coaching and playing baseball with various teams and it’s always somewhat of an embarrassment to show up to Park City and have opposing teams ask us why when we have one of the highest income communities that have the lowest quality baseball fields.
Case in point, last year after we won our regional games on our field to continue to state playoffs, the opposing coach/athletic director was amazed that we do not have better facilities for players and fans and questioned us on why the school district was not more supportive off an great program.
Park City High School represented Park City exceptionally well this year in the state playoffs. We went 21-10 overall, went 12-3 in our region games, came in fifth in 4A for the entire state, and ranked 21st overall in the state.
Usually, schools that have sporting programs that do well in the community and on the state level are rewarded. This entire community program works hard on the field and in the community to build the program and further the success of any member of the community by being inclusive and compassionate to their needs; baseball or otherwise.
I am happy to discuss on the phone, via email, text, or in person with anyone who has
any interest in helping the Park City baseball program to discuss the program and field’s needs.
In the meantime, we will continue to develop a program that provides an opportunity for young players to achieve their goals, excel at a lifelong sport and provide leadership to these young men and women to assist them in becoming outstanding members of our community.
Christopher Schmidt
Assistant Park City High School Baseball Coach, owner Canyon Ridge Services