Ah, Greenville High School Michigan’s baseball field, back in 2008. Yeah, I remember that time. It wasn’t exactly a field of dreams when we first really looked at it, if you know what I mean. More like a field of, well, “could use some serious work.”
A bunch of us, mostly parents whose kids were either playing or hoping to play, we sort of unofficially adopted it. The school, bless their hearts, didn’t have a huge budget for fancy athletic stuff back then. So, we figured, if anything was gonna get done, it was gonna be us doing it. That was our starting point, our initial “practice” if you will – realizing it was on us.
Our Grand Plan (Sort Of)
So, we started talking. First, over lukewarm coffee at morning drop-offs, then maybe a bit more formally, well, as formal as a bunch of slightly clueless but enthusiastic volunteers can get. Our process was pretty simple: find the biggest eyesores and tackle ’em. There wasn’t a grand blueprint handed down from on high. It was more like, “Hey, that backstop looks like it’s seen better days,” or “The dugout benches are basically splinters waiting to happen.”
The first step in our practice was always getting the thumbs up from the school. That could be a whole adventure in itself, navigating who to talk to. But we got through it. Then came the fun part: figuring out how to actually do the work with next to no money.
- We begged for donations of materials. Old paint? We’d take it. Lumber scraps? Perfect.
- We scrounged. You’d be surprised what people have lying around in their garages.
- We pooled our own tools. My old trusty shovel saw a lot of action.
Sweat Equity, That’s What We Called It
I remember this one Saturday. We decided the infield needed some serious leveling. Man, that was a day. We had a couple of guys who thought they knew what they were doing with a rented roller, and the rest of us were on rakes and shovels. It was hot, dusty, and by lunchtime, we were all looking like we’d wrestled a family of badgers. But you know what? As we were packing up, covered in dirt, looking at a slightly less lumpy infield, there was a real sense of, “Yeah, we did that.”
Our practice wasn’t about perfection. It was about making it better, bit by bit. We painted. We mended fences. We tried to get grass to grow in patches where only weeds dared to tread. Some things worked, some things… well, they were learning experiences. I distinctly recall a “genius” idea to fix a soggy spot near third base that involved a lot of gravel and even more arguing. Didn’t quite turn out like the diagrams we drew on a napkin.
There was a lot of trial and error. We weren’t professional groundskeepers. We were just people who cared. We learned as we went. One guy, Jerry, he became our unofficial “drainage expert” after watching a couple of videos online. His solutions were, let’s say, creative.
More Than Just Dirt and Grass
Looking back, that time around 2008, working on that field, it was more than just manual labor. It was about community. It was about showing the kids that you gotta put in the effort for things you care about. We weren’t building a stadium, we were building a bit of pride.
Sure, it was never gonna be perfect. And I bet by now, it’s probably been redone a dozen times over with proper funding and professional crews. That’s how it goes. But for that period, our little band of volunteers, our makeshift practices and all, we made a difference to that baseball field at Greenville High. We poured a bit of ourselves into that ground. And honestly, that felt pretty good.
