$400,000 for boys baseball field, $27,000 for girls softball field.

Cannonball said:

How does a coach build a program that players want to be a part of?

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This is huge imo.

One of the best things about having a nice on campus field... is kids coming out of school watching the game. The junior high team comes and plays on it too.

The girls feel like they represent their school now...they are a part of things, they really feel like they are playing for something more. They get recognition for their efforts.

They had twice as many girls try out this year than last year.

It helps build the program in so many ways.

Playing across town had so many issues it was crazy including the safety of even getting there.

I could tell you all kinds of inequality and challenges we had during our process. While we kept it positive as we could...believe me...there was a lot that went on!

What people are missing is that we don't have school teams in order to win games or trophies or have 200 fans show up. School teams exist to teach leadership, sportsmanship and teamwork.

Obviously, you don't have to have a $400,000 field to teach leadership, sportsmanship and teamwork...but, for whatever reason, the school district has decided that the boys are worth $400,000.

If the boys are worth $400,000, so are the girls.

quincy said:

Dad is President of Naperville LL, like 1400 teams or something. I also grew up there, graduated from Naperville North.

DD plays against the diamonds a few times a year, not my favorite team but just my opinion.

All the softball fields we played on are fine, we have never had any Issues.

By the way baseball team is usually pretty good, softball team not so much.

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The issue isn't the Naperville Diamonds, as they have nothing to do with the high school field and Naperville Central. When your daughter plays against them, I guarantee it isn't on this field. Most likely Frontier Park, which is a great facility maintained by the city.

Also not a question of whether the field is fine or not, but rather a question of equivalency with the high school's baseball facility. Of the 5 high school in Naperville, Central's field is easily the worst.

This is a picture of the two fields. You can see that the boys field has two bullpens and batting cages. It also has a permanent fence. The backstop at the boys field has a brick base with black netting rather than just a chain link fence.

Like a lot of places, the softball field was thrown in without any thought to things like cages. You had better believe I would find a place for cages and pitching areas. Where is the JV softball field? There is a JV baseball field.

Here is the shot of the entire HS. The HS located smack dab in the middle of Naperville. It is a block from downtown.

The school was built in 1950, when Naperville's population was 7,000. (Naperville's population is now 145,000.) So, they didn't buy enough land when they built the school. Everything is shoehorned into a very small area for a school of almost 3000.

The reason they haven't improved the softball field is because the city uses everything south of the tennis courts for two huge events. The city takes down the temporary fence, and then covers everything south of the tennis court to the road with a protective pad.

Usual stuff...baseball first, softball last.

sluggers said:

Here is the shot of the entire HS. The HS located smack dab in the middle of Naperville. It is a block from downtown.

The school was built in 1950, when Naperville's population was 7,000. (Naperville's population is now 145,000.) So, they didn't buy enough land when they built the school. Everything is shoehorned into a very small area for a school of almost 3000.

The reason they haven't improved the softball field is because the city uses everything south of the tennis courts for two huge events. The city takes down the temporary fence, and then covers everything south of the tennis court to the road with a protective pad.

Usual stuff...baseball first, softball last.

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So, three decent baseball diamonds and look at the JV field. Centerfield is the shortest distance of the OFs from home and the OF curves.

That's a nice field. I could fix that up for way less than 10k. It would play perfectly. I've done many rehabs for churches. I don't like seeing an overgrown baseball or softball field. Programs that aren't successful boil down to coaching. If you have a good coach that teaches kids how to play, they'll play in a mudhole to be there

Just for clarification, Naperville Central has a good softball program. They have plenty of kids in their program. Getting the kids to play isn't the issue.

The issue is that the girls are not treated like the boys.