On an overcast Tuesday morning, a Little League baseball team of 9- and 10-year-olds practices for a Wednesday game, charging ground balls and hitting balls off of the tee… indoors!
Yes, indoors, on artificial turf inside the MayPort Community Center. Youngsters in summer recreation softball, baseball or T- ball plus high school, college and amateur ball players don’t have to worry about practice being rained out.
“Most teams have had at least two practices in there already,” Missy Hutter told the Tribune.
Kim Braaten Memorial Arena has ice for hockey and skating through the winter. Now it has artificial turf, used by Rookies, Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion baseball teams, not to mention the Red Caps. All teams have access to two indoor batting cages, both with pitching machines.
“That is a nice thing to have,” Eric Nygaard, head coach of the 2015 Class B state baseball champions, told the Tribune, “pretty convenient when the weather was bad and we had a morning practice.”
Randy Garrett, with the May- Port Community Center building committee, says the turf is seeing more use than the committee expected since installing it in mid-May.
“We’d been discussing putting artificial turf in for a couple of years,” Garrett told the Tribune. “This winter we came across some turf from Clemson Univer- sity in South Carolina.”
Parts of the Clemson “Tiger paw” are visible. The club bor- rowed some money and has revenue coming in from various sources. The $25,000 cost of the turf is expected to be paid off within five years, Garrett said.
“The balls come off it faster than they do on grass, but it’s bet- ter than practicing on concrete,” said Garrett, a parent of two kids in the summer recreation leagues.
Nygaard agrees, “The ball ac- tually takes a bit of a skip, but the artificial surface is easier on the kids’ knees. We did a lot of infield work, our pitchers could practice fielding ground balls and bunts.”
Even the Little Leaguers dis- cover that the ball takes a funny hop when it strikes the seams in the turf. But asked if it helped his fielding at third base, the Patriots’ Aaron Ust said, “Oh, definitely. It was really helpful to have that turf in there. It’s really nice.”
Aaron Evans, Patriots’ pitch- er/first baseman, is used to play- ing hockey in Braaten Memorial Arena, when the ice is white. “It’s different because the turf is so dark,” Evans said, “but it’s nice when you want to get some hitting in or take some ground balls before games.”
Mayville State Coach Scott Berry said the Comets made use of the turf during the last couple of weeks of the season. The Com- ets see a few artificial turf infields on the road, including Dickinson State. Berry praised the MPCC committee’s work.
“We need indoor facilities with our climate,” Berry said. “They’re a great group of people and they’re doing a great job.”
Nygaard concurred, “Our community center wants kids involved.”
James R. Johnson, Traill County Tribune
A special thanks to the Traill County Tribune for the use of this article from June 8, 2015