Capital High School will have a new look, with the softball field down the hill to be relocated up top with the baseball field and tennis courts, and expected to be ready when Christmas rolls around

By Arnie Leshin 

Nothing like dressing up a campus, giving it a new look welcomed by all, providing more space and less travel, and hearing and seeing the praise of visitors.

 

Well, this is all in progress at Capital High School, with the emphasis on athletics. How about plans to move the softball field from down the hill and up among the baseball field and tennis courts? How about all of the area that has been used for softball only to be renovated into welcomed use for soccer practices?

 

Indoor athletics will remain in place for basketball and volleyball. But outside there will be just a short stroll to where the baseball, softball and tennis courts will be.

 

Call it Jaguar land if you want, with just a short walk to the picturesque Jaguar Football Field and its state-of-the-art turf with the track and field area dressing it up, and where cross country starts and finishes.  

 

But the new look for the aqua, black and white will be right off the campus parking lot, and it’s now scheduled to be unveiled in the next few months. Maybe there will even be ribbon cutting and cheerleaders and pep squad leading the celebration.

 

It has been presently approved. Bids are winding down to choose a construction company. Talks of a concession canopy have been discussed. No longer will there be the long road downhill and having to find parking on land that doesn’t belong to the school, no more long-range checking out what’s going on in softball and baseball.

 

No, this will replace communicating via cell phones, this will have the campus parking lot at your disposal. No more will handicapped fans have to make their way to the softball field.

 

Says Sig Rivera, who has resigned as head softball coach to devote more

time to coaching baseball for the children in his family, “It’s just a great idea, and I’m happy to be part of it. We’re still doing research and still requiring additional money, but we’ve already got the piecing in place.”

 

The area where the baseball field now stands is being torn down, with the baseball field being moved back, and back-to-back with the new softball field, where home plate will be facing northwest and the baseball home plate facing north.

 

Dimensions will remain the same, 200 feet for softball and over 300 feet for baseball. Both fields will be outfield turf and infield clay. Baseball head baseball coach Nick Salazar is excited about this, can hardly wait to be part of this new look. The neat and popular tennis courts, under head coach Patrick Tolen, will remain right where they are,just west of the fields.

 

There will be a big screen in between the ball fields so that balls don’t land in either fields, so that they don’t interfere with games going on.There will be warning tracks around both fields to avoid crashes.

 

Visiting softball teams will love this. No more turning into the dirt, rocks, pothole areas next to the softball field to park, now they need only to park in the ready-make, roomy campus lot. They will also welcome the new ballpark.

 

Fences around the old softball field will be removed. The grounds there will be laid out for the soccer practices, and the matches will continue to play at the football field.

 

The project has been going on for 5-6 months. Its summer time, so when classes resume, the news will get around to the parents, visitors and other staff members, but it won’t be ready until December rolls around and will resonate with a Merry Christmas.

 

It has been all been the initial idea of Larry Chavez, the present Capital athletic director who awaits a promotion to another role at Capital while the school searches for a new athletic director.