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Highlands Today

Sports Complex Remains A Diamond For Players

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: September 19, 2008

SEBRING - Players and coaches in the Florida Half Century softball association, for players 50 and up, liked what they saw here when they played a tournament earlier this year at the Highlands County Sports Complex.

That's why they are planning on returning to Highlands County for another weekend tournament in 2009.

It's the same with a Seventy-Plus softball league, which brought 70 teams here for one of the largest weekend tournaments at the year-old sports complex, which opened in early September 2007.

"They're coming back for a second year," said Vicki Pontius, county parks and recreation director. There were so many teams this year, she said, that some of the Seventy-Plus tournament games had to be played on "overflow" fields at Sebring's Max Long Recreational Complex.

"This coming year, they're going to use fields in Lake Placid for overflow," Pontius said.

While $4 a gallon gas and the national recession are reducing business at sports complexes everywhere, Pontius said she's optimistic about booking a full schedule of weekend tournaments for 2009 that will draw out-of-town teams to area hotels and restaurants.

In early November, Pontius and a staffer of the Highlands County Tourist Development Council will have a booth at the National Softball convention in Panama City. They'll do the same at the convention of the Independent Softball Association in Fort Myers in early December.

Those conventions are important, since the two major softball associations will be scheduling most of their weekend tournaments for 2009 before the end of this year.

From talking with players and coaches at tournaments this year, Pontius said, Highlands County has an advantage because the five softball diamonds have been drawing great reviews.

"The fields are definitely a selling point," Pontius said. "And they've told me they like Highlands County because they like going somewhere different, and they like the fact that we've rolled out the red carpet for them."

Eleven out-of-town teams played a tournament at the sports complex this past weekend, and six more weekend tournaments are scheduled there before the end of this year.

"With the downturn in the economy and people not traveling so much, I hope that it won't impact our hotel stays (from tournaments)," Pontius said. "I've talked to some of the other counties that have sports complexes, and we're not unique. Everybody's got that concern.

"The one thing we noticed," Pontius said about the impact of the economy, "is that there are fewer teams coming. They still have the tournaments, but there are fewer teams."

A plus for Highlands County in the competition for weekend softball tournaments is the probability that teams that enjoyed their stay here this year will come back.

Dan Jameson, a groundskeeper at the sports complex who also helps coordinate the weekday softball leagues and the weekend tournaments, said there's no doubt the quality of the ballfields is a major plus.

Jameson said it isn't hard for him to be objective in rating the ballfields because he's played softball, and some baseball, for 20 years.

"I started out in the Columbus (Ohio) area and travelled all around the United States, and gone to the Bahamas and to Canada, playing softball," he said. "I think these fields are among the better ones I've ever been around. And with the maintenance, we keep on top of it all the time."

The Highlands County commissioners built the sports complex for two reasons: to draw weekend tournaments to boost the local economy, and to provide first-class facilities for local adult and youth leagues
Pontius said local teams, for both children and adults, in softball, football and soccer, are regularly filling the Sports Complex Mondays through Saturdays.

Right now, she reported, 35 softball teams, in recreational, church and company leagues, are playing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

"In addition to that," she said, "we have 240 kids playing football (for Sebring Youth Football) five days a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays."

The Heartland Soccer Club youth soccer teams are playing there, having moved from Max Long, where they had played in cramped quarters, sharing fields with baseball and football programs.

"The younger children are playing now, and from November through February the older ones will be playing there," Pontius said.

An adult soccer league, the Mexican Soccer League, played on Sundays at the sports complex earlier in the year, and will resume play in November.

"Right now, with the exception of Sunday, we're running six days a week," Pontius said. "And it's building and growing as people realize how nice the fields are and how nice the facilities are."

On Monday, two teams of employees at Highlands Regional Medical Center will begin playing softball for a six- to 10-week season, depending on the weather. Pontius said she'd like to see more companies renting the sports complex ballfields to get their workers together for good-time ballgames.

Mark Sager, an endoscopy nurse at Highlands Regional, organized the first five-week session of after-work softball games for co-workers, with the games played at Max Long. Nelson Rivera, who works in the hospital's cafeteria, has organized the new season, which will move to the county sports complex.

"What we did it for was morale," Sager said. "It's a morale booster, to see people how you don't see them at work. We had a good time with it, and this group that played had such a good time they want to play again."

Besides the five tournament-quality ballfields, the youth football field and a soccer field, Pontius said, the sports complex also has a lot of open green space, and organizations are starting to use that for get-togethers.

"Heartland Christian School had an end of the school year party here," Pontius said. "And Grace Bible Church had activities here."

Jim Konkoly an be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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