For six years the Acorns’ softball team had been playing at
Community Park
They’re the defending Central Coast Section Division I Softball
Champions, yet they haven’t had a field of their own for six
seasons.
But this week the Live Oak Acorns are expected to play a home
game on campus for the first time since 2000.
For six years the Acorns’ softball team had been playing at Community Park
They’re the defending Central Coast Section Division I Softball Champions, yet they haven’t had a field of their own for six seasons.
But this week the Live Oak Acorns are expected to play a home game on campus for the first time since 2000.
“The girls are really, really excited about coming back,” said Live Oak softball coach Barry McDonnell. “We got the approval to come back from the district and the girls are excited. It’s a lot nicer for the younger players that don’t have driver’s licenses. Now they can walk out to the field and go. It also helps with practice times and transportation issues.”
In recent years the Acorns had been playing all of their home games at Community Park in Morgan Hill, which is located at the opposite end of the town about three miles from campus.
The initial decision to close the old field was made in the late 1990s by the school district after it was determined that the only way the aging high school could accommodate Live Oak’s surging student body population – which hovered above the 2,000 mark at the time – was to install temporary portable classrooms on the north end of the campus that covered over the school’s softball field.
The portable units were a temporary fix during the construction phase of Ann Sobrato High School.
Since Sobrato opened Live Oak’s student body population has dropped to the 1,200 range, allowing the portables to be removed from the site.
“I’d say there’s still about eight left out there, but there’s enough room for this field now,” said McDonnell, who coached on the field in his first season as head varsity coach before the move to Community Park.
Reopening the old field was a lot more challenging then just dismantling the portable classrooms and hauling them away.
Asphalt had to be torn out, fences were erected for boundaries and dugouts, and two-thirds of the outfield had to be covered in new grass.
Live Oak’s assistant varsity coach Ed Ferry was the general contractor on the project.
“A lot of people helped out, donated a lot and volunteered a lot of time to get this ready,” McDonnell said. “Associated Concrete donated time and materials and the Grass Farm gave us free sod and a lot of others helped.”
Unfortunately, the remaining portables on the property aren’t expected to be moved for another three years, which means that the JV team will not play at home this year.
However, next season Live Oak will leave the Tri County Athletic League to compete in the San Jose-based Blossom Valley Athletic League.
Schedules in the TCAL are set up so that both varsity and JV squads each play against the same schools on the same day.
In the BVAL the teams flip-flop; when one is at home, the other is on the road, which would allow both Live Oak teams to play home games next season even without the moving of more portables.
