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By FRANK SHANLY
Bluffton High School’s Athletic Department has seen some major additions to its facilities this year.
New batting cages have provided a huge boost to both the school’s baseball and softball programs, with a new storage shed being moved into place at the time of writing this article, and a new swimming scoreboard has also been added at the middle school pool.
Both projects were achieved thanks to some sterling contributions from players, teachers, non-playing students, parents, and the wider community, making for a real team effort.
“Our batting cages are something that we’re very proud of.” enthused Bluffton Athletic Director Steve Thompson. “That has been what sets our facility apart from most facilities and we’re very fortunate that the booster club came alongside the athletic department and helped us to get that.
“I proposed the idea and the booster club ran with it and they paid for it, and the softball coach Rick Mettler and myself had the plans and we got the vendors and its really came along great.”
Thompson is very appreciative of the assistance the athletic booster club was able to provide with this project.
“We have our standard fundraisers throughout the year.” explained Bluffton Athletic Boosters President Quinn Curry. “That’s the concession stands, which are the biggest contributor to our funds, we do 50/50 raffles and half time shoots at the basketball games. This year we had our first annual Ron DeWitt Golf Outing which was big contributing factor to our fund raising.
“We manage the money. Requests have to come from the coaches to Steve (Thompson), and then he comes to us for needs, and there are some things that we don’t fund - individual awards, uniforms, and other stuff that’s budgeted. We try to help the athletes out with the things that would be nice to have, and not the things that are necessary to play the sport.”
With the plans in hand and the booster club providing the funds, Thompson then looked for a way to involve the students in the project.
Industrial Tech teacher Kevin Powell provided that answer.
“In his first semester,” recalled Thompson, “from fall to January, he had a class that welded the framing for the batting cage. Then his second class, from January to the end of school was more of a working class and they actually built a storage shed that will sit out by the batting cages.
“So we’ve had in the neighborhood of 30 students who have participated in the whole project. That’s obviously been good for us financially, in that its saved us some money, but its been even better for the kids to participate in the project and to learn some real hands-on skills. And now what I think will benefit those kids who maybe don’t play sports, they can have a connection with all the athletes who use that facility, and every time they go by, they can say ‘I welded that, I put the roof on that storage shed’, and that’s been great for our kids.”
Contributions from the community at large also proved invaluable. Lowes in Bluffton provided the bulk of the materials required, while Randy Gentis at Croy Machine in Vera Cruz provided the design and framing for the cages.
“He kind of designed what we were looking for and understood that we were going to do it as a school project.” recalled Thompson. “So he was gracious enough to not be mad that he wasn’t getting the fabrication side of the business. He had a great attitude and helped the kids.”
The cages were designed for use by both baseball and softball, as Bluffton hosts the Sectional Tournaments for both sports on a regular basis.
Under the supervision of Dave Brinneman and Cory Onweller, who also donated their time and expertise to the project, the parents then chipped in with the labor, to actually install the cages.
The cages themselves were put to use during the recent season, while the storage shed is being added over the summer holidays.
“It was just a great project with parents teams, coaches, and everybody involved.” enthused Thompson. “We just have to finish up some loose ends with our storage shed and getting that out there. Even our corporation maintenance people, they did all the wiring.”
Visiting teams have certainly noticed what Bluffton has to offer.
“We’ve had a lot of complements on the whole baseball/softball complex in the school itself.” recalled Curry. “And when you’re working the concession stands you hear those comments, and that’s good.”
The other big project of the past year was the acquisition of the new six-lane digital scoreboard at the middle school swimming pool, which is used as the home venue for the swimming team.
“Again, the parents got involved, the kids got involved and coaches got involved.” recalled Thompson. “The kids had a swimathon and raised a significant amount of money, roughly $15,000, to help purchase that.
“There was no way the athletic department could have purchased that. But we were able to partner (the project), and did it with the community’s support. We had some major businesses donate some money and then the swimathon enabled us to get that.”
After the additions of the past year, the 2008/09 school year should prove a little less hectic. The athletic department has no major development plans for the coming school year, although efforts will be made to make minor improvements to the school’s facilities, as the Tigers attempt to stay ahead of the pack.
“We have great facilities here at Bluffton.” stressed Thompson. “When you travel our schedule, we are very fortunate at Bluffton High School that we have some top of the line facilities. But every year we try to make further improvements.”
Thompson remains extremely grateful for the support given to the school by the community that has enabled the past year’s projects to come to fruition.
“So many other people helped with these projects too, so I hope we haven’t upset anyone who we haven’t named.” he added. “It really was such a great team effort from everyone involved.”
frank@news-banner.com