The Lowndes County Sportsplex off Highway 82 held a soft opening Saturday, kicking off the completion of a $12 million project with a one-day baseball tournament.
Lowndes County Recreation Department Interim Director Tom Velek told The Dispatch most of the construction of the complex, which features eight baseball fields, concession stands, picnic tables and a playground area, was completed earlier this month and the county took over Thursday.
“Construction crews were still doing some work earlier this week and there’s still some things obviously that will get done,” Velek said. “I literally had the keys turned over to me on Thursday, and we got people swinging bats out here today.”
Before the tournament began Saturday morning, Velek honored former parks and recreation director Roger Short, who passed away in 2022. As director, Short spearheaded many projects, including the Sportsplex and the Roger Short Soccer Complex, which was dedicated in his honor earlier this year.
“Roger always said to me in his office that this was his last big project,” Velek told more than 60 tournament attendees. “He just wanted to get this done. So it’s really sad that he’s not here to see it, but I think he knows. I’m honored to be the one that was chosen to lead this project along.”
To put on the soft opening, LCRD partnered with Grand Slam Tournaments and BankFirst, which paid $25,000 to sponsor the baseball fields as BankFirst Yards over the next 10 years. The tournaments featured 10 youth league teams, with three from the Golden Triangle.
“This just seemed like a great opportunity, especially since (Lowndes County) is where we’re headquartered,” BankFirst Marketing Officer Katie McLaurin said. “Now to see it come to fruition through all the work, all the planning and seeing these kids out here having fun and playing ball is great, and it’s not just that. It’s also the community camaraderie that we see here today. I think that we are pleased and really happy about this partnership.”
Velek said other area companies have also purchased sponsorships for $1,000 for the next four years at each baseball field.
4-County Electric also announced in August it would donate wireless internet at the park via its FastNet broadband service.
Future work at the Sportsplex
Velek said that the Sportsplex would only be open for the day and reopen in the spring to give time for more work to be completed.
That work includes adding branding and signage to the complex from BankFirst and the other sponsors, nets for foul balls, new benches, removal of dead trees and installing free internet from 4-County Electric.
“This weekend is kind of about getting some of the kinks out and figuring out some things we might be missing,” Velek said. “One of the things that’s missing is foul ball netting. We have some flagpoles to put up and we’d like to get a PA system for the entire facility. At some point, we need to talk about a security system out here, but those are all add-ons. What was in the plans to be done is essentially done.”
Velek said that work will continue in November and be complete in time for more tournaments to be held in the spring.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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