Little League rehabilitates ballfields in Kentfield, Ross
The Ross Valley Little League is overhauling baseball fields at Bacich School and Ross School to support the safety of its players.
Members are calling it the largest capital improvement project ever undertaken by the organization — a $200,000 effort to improve the fields, fencing, dugouts, cages and stands, said board member Geoff Hammond.
“These fields have been largely in disrepair for many years. It came time to address the safety concerns and bring the fields up to a more modern era and increase the safety at the same time,” Hammond said.
The renovations will be completed by Saturday in time for the start of the Little League season.
The Ross Valley Little League was established in 1956 and currently has 469 players between the ages of 5 and 12. The league uses Bacich for its minor and major league games and has farm, rookie and T-ball levels at Ross.
The work includes expanding and increasing the height and length of the fencing at Bacich, as well as adding new batting and pitching cages, and adding new sod for leveling. The Bacich dugouts will be fully enclosed, irrigation will be improved and a cement pad was put down for the stands.
“Bacich field hadn't been done in I don't know how long,” said Matt Davenport, a coach in the league. “We're trying to upgrade these fields to make them fun to play at, safe for everybody and just make it a great community experience for everybody because Ross Valley Little League is such a part of the community.”
At Ross Common, the group has made fence upgrades.
“But to say we're upgrading it is not doing it justice,” Davenport said.
Davenport said some of the improvements were necessary to improve the reliability of the field and game for the development of players.
Bacich was known for its “bad hops,” he said, when a bouncing baseball takes an unexpected move. Sometimes the ball can hit a child in the chest or head.
“You lose that confidence when a bad hop hits you,” Davenport said. “We wanted a venue where we could build that confidence.”
Greg Livengood, league president, said he was motivated to lead the charge on the project because of the years of delay since the pandemic hit.
“We had spent several years talking about the need to upgrade our field,” Livengood said. “We got ourselves pretty close to ready to go for it in 2019, but COVID put everything on hold.”
Since he's become president, Livengood said, he sought to “reignite the fire”
to get the project started again.
“We all agreed it was time to invest in those fields,” he said. “We wanted to make it not just safer from a playing perspective, but make the overall experience better for our players and our families. We just felt it was very important to make it a very nice experience for everyone out there.”
The Kentfield School District owns the Bacich fields and Ross Common is owned by the town and managed by Ross School. The Ross
Valley Little League and the school are jointly collaborating and funding the fencing upgrades at the Ross Common fields, Hammond said.
The group
has
raised
more than $61,000 for the cost of the renovations with a fundraiser called the “Ross Valley Little League Field of Dreams.” Donations can be contributed at bit.ly/3yzOulx.