Landry: Hosting state baseball, softball tourneys a chance to highlight city

A day after Lakeside won its bid for the 2022 state baseball and softball tournaments, athletic director Darin Landry weighed in on how big he feels the decision is for the school and Hot Springs.

“What I wanted to do, I really wanted to highlight our community our school and the Majestic Park,” Landry said. “You know, we were in talks with Majestic Park about hosting, hosting the state baseball and softball, and it’s a beautiful, it’s a beautiful park. We have a beautiful campus, and we really want to showcase our school and our community.”

Landry said that the plan for the tournament is to host baseball games on both the Rams’ baseball field as well as the larger Babe Ruth Field while having softball games both at the school and at Majestic Park as well.

“They have one large baseball field, which will host the GAC tournament,” he said. “So we’ll play baseball on that field, and they have four smaller fields … that the mounds can be taken off and they be softball fields. So they’ve got four fields that we can do that with, too.”

Lakeside hosted the Class 5A state softball tournament in 2015, but it did not host the baseball tournament that year. Landry said that the school hosted the tournament at Kimery Park that year.

The district also put in a bid to host the state soccer tournament, which ultimately went to El Dorado. Lakeside hosted the 2016 Class 5A state soccer tournament, partnering with Hot Springs and Fountain Lake.

“We were going to partner with Hot Springs and Lake Hamilton, so we would have had our two turf fields on our campus and Hot Springs’ turf and Lake Hamilton’s turf,” Landry explained. “So we had four turf fields that we could have ran a full soccer tournament on, which would have been great and we could highlight, you know, our little city. You know, but it didn’t work out in our favor, and that’s great for El Dorado. I’m happy for them, but … we’ll make a run at that again.”

Landry said that the reason for the school putting in a bid was in part due to Lakeside’s soccer teams success last year.

“(Head soccer coach Craig Moses) does have a lot coming back,” he said. “You know, and anytime that your sports, you know — if you can have a state tournament and you’re the host site, it’s always, it’s a good advantage for your school.”

Landry said he learned quite a bit from putting in bids for the state tournaments in his first year as athletic director.

“I learned a lot through the process. … I wanted to include the community, push Hot Springs and what we have to offer — the many hotels, the many restaurants,” he said. “You know, that’s what I feel is the best way to go because you want, you want an area as a host site. You want an area where, you know, the ball teams can bunk and, you know, and have a great time and to have great facilities. And also their parents, you know, when they’re here; they might be here for three straight days. And you know, know that you want something that they can … do and get their mind off that game.

“Our city is a wonderful host, and I think there’s so many things to do. You know, I’ve reached out to different restaurants and hotels, and you know, they’re eager to bring more people into Hot Springs.”