SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Celebrations were in order on Friday, November 21, to honor a completely remodeled softball field at South Tahoe Middle School, with a ribbon-cutting event signaling the start of a new chapter for women and girls who play the sport of softball.
Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe (SISLT), an organization striving to create equal opportunities and accessibility for women and youth, have dedicated their time, energy and funds to turn a battered amenity into a fully-equipped softball facility to be proud of, with upgrades such as a new dug-out, ADA accessible parking lot, new bleachers and more.
In addition to Soroptimist and community donations, funds were provided from a voter-approved local ballot measure called Measure U, passed in November of last year, making it the first project of Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) classroom repair measure.
“It takes everyone to come together to have a great school district, to have a great city, a great community, and so that’s what we’re doing,” said Superintendent of LTUSD, Todd Cutler, Ed. D. “I just want to share how incredibly thankful I am, our district is, for the partnership with Soroptimist.”
SISLT was looking for a major project to assist with, and because softball is made up of women and girls, the softball field operation was chosen. SISLT’s softball committee chairperson, Rose Marie Ottman, said “It’s an empowering program,” and she’s looking forward to seeing large usage of the field now that the 5-year project is nearing full completion. “The middle schoolers benefit from it, the adult league benefits from it, High Sierra Softball, junior varsity and varsity play here before the snow melts, and hopefully we’re going to get Club Softball going again.”
Assisting with coordination of the hefty project was Cumming Group’s project manager, Roy Benge and Senior Project Manager, Jamie Brown. “We kind of had to work really quickly to get everything started,” said Benge, “and be able to perform the work in the TRPA grading season,” which goes from May 1st through October 15. “We got through that, we got some weather in October and November, and those were some of the challenges we had to work through.”
When discussing the before and after of the project, Benge said, “If you had seen it before, nothing drained in the parking lot, it was super eroded, so there have been storm water improvements.”
“It’s much safer for kids and grandparents, and everybody to come, watch a game, and safely park,” added Brown.
Varsity softball player at South Tahoe High School, Skyelach Nichols-Shipley, said she plans on spending every day at the field once the season starts. “It’s really exciting getting to have new facilities. When we used to come, we’d look at the boys’ stuff and we’d be like ‘that looks so cool’, but now we get all of our new stuff and it’s really fun. We’re all excited.”
With only a warm-up area and batting cages left to add, the Soroptimist softball facilities are sure to provide necessary amenities and overall fun for years to come.
