In an effort to provide Harvard’s softball players with the facilities they will need in the spring, the School Committee voted at its Aug. 22 meeting to spend up to $70,000 to convert one of the Ryan Land baseball fields to a softball field and to improve the existing softball field on Ann Lees Road. The Parks and Recreation Commission will have to vote to allow these modifications before any work can begin.
This is a temporary solution to a problem created when the construction of the new elementary school resulted in the loss of two softball fields. Currently, the field on Ann Lees Road is the only softball field in town, and it is shared among school and town youth softball teams. Last spring, the schools had only enough players for a middle school team, but next spring, both middle school and junior varsity teams will be looking for game and practice fields. In addition, the Harvard Youth Baseball and Softball Association will have multiple softball teams in need of practice and game space.
Parks and Rec Chair Bob O’Shea has proposed that the schools use both fields until 5:30 p.m. each day, and HYBSA use the fields after that. School games would all take place on the Ann Lees field, which has a larger outfield. The schools have not yet agreed to that plan.
School Committee member Sharlene Cronin told the committee it was “irresponsible” to commit funds to make improvements on one field without looking at them all. In addition, she said converting the Ryan Land field to softball was just a Band-Aid to fix the town’s most pressing field shortage.
She also voiced concerns about improving the girls’ fields without considering equitable improvements at the boys’ Pond Road baseball field. In late June, a softball player’s parent filed a Title IX discrimination complaint against the schools, stating that female softball players on Harvard’s school team do not have access to the same quality field and associated amenities as the school’s male baseball players. The proposed improvements to the Ann Lees field address that complaint in part. But the improvements will provide amenities that the Pond Road field doesn’t have, such as covered dugouts and a working scoreboard.
School Superintendent Linda Dwight also pointed out that the boys have only one field for middle school, junior varsity, and varsity baseball, and they frequently have to put temporary bases out on the soccer field for practice.
Despite the new inequities this decision may create, the committee moved forward with a unanimous vote to fund a batting cage, dugout covers, a scoreboard, and a shed for changing and storage at Ann Lees field. In addition, work will be done to move the field’s foul poles to their correct positions and to move the bases to their proper location in relation to the backstop. At one of the Ryan Land fields, the committee’s funds will pay for removing the infield grass and installing clay, improving the dugouts and adding covers, replacing the benches, and installing bleachers and a changing and storage shed.
