Lenoir City High School is excited to announce the new addition to campus: a new softball field! After having to travel to the middle school for games and practices in the previous seasons, the team is excited to finally have their own space. One of their coaches, Miss Guth, further explains their excitement about this great addition to the school.

“I’m looking forward to having a new space all to ourselves. I am also looking forward to the proximity. Having the team drive over to the middle school for practice causes us to have to start later, so it’ll be nice to be able to start right after school and not have to share that space with any other team,” Guth said.

Along with having their own space, this new field presents a great opportunity for the team to have more practice on a turf field. This is also guaranteed to peak more people’s interest due to the other sports that will be going on around the same time.

“I think the new field will help the team in the upcoming seasons. Not many teams we play will have experience on a turf infield, so I think it will give us a slight advantage since we will be practicing on it every day. I think it will also help bring in spectators since we will be on campus with baseball and soccer all in the same season. People can stop by several games in one night if they want,” Guth said.

Not only will this new field give them an advantage, but it will also erase many of the hardships they have had to deal with during past seasons. Things like having to travel back and forth for practices, and not being able to use the field when it rains have held them back a lot in the past. Thanks to this new field, these problems will no longer exist.

“Some hardships we have faced in the past have been canceling or postponing games due to rain because our infield at the middle school is dirt and so rain would cause us to not be able to use it if it rains the day of or even day before a game. So we would have to reschedule games and that is hard on the players. Having turf infield will help keep that to a minimum in the upcoming seasons. Other hardships were having to find transportation for younger players from the high school to the middle school since they cannot drive themselves. It’s also been hard in the off season because we want to lift weights in the weight rooms on the high school campus but then don’t have a space to throw or hit afterward because all of our softball stuff is over at the middle school,” Guth said.

The new softball field has already been a major upgrade for the team. Now, instead of having to waste time traveling to practice to be at a softball field, they have access to one right in their backyard.

“Having the field closer will help us be able to start practices right after school instead of having to allow for travel time to the middle school. It’ll also help us have our own space during the off season so we can have team workouts and open fields instead of having to schedule around middle school softball. We will also be able to take advantage of the weight rooms on campus and then still use our field for more softball related workouts. It also helps us have better access to the athletic trainer since we will be on campus year round with all the other sports she covers,” Guth said.

In all, this new addition to the campus has greatly helped the softball team. They can’t wait for upcoming seasons, and are excited to see where the rest of this season takes them.