It’s a building year

After spending a few seasons across the stream playing in the community park fields, the Lady Tigers are coming home to the high school. The new Pigeon Forge Rotary Centennial Park will be the home of Lady Tiger softball. Work on the new facility continued through the spring and things are coming together quickly now for the new field. The sod went down the middle of last week with the help of players, coaches and parents. “Some of our players have really worked out here the last few weeks,” said Coach Pearson in between trips back and forth to the sod pile. The concession stand still needs to be finished. The stand will have a deck- type frontage to allow an unobstructed view of the field from the bleachers. There are cemented areas for some folding chairs below, which are already in place. Some general clean up will need to take place, but the field itself and dug outs will be usable in the next few weeks. Pearson hopes to have the funds to build a locker room facility resembling the baseball teams, but a smaller scale. The building would enclose the new batting cage as part of the future expansion. Though the official opening by the team in a varsity game won’t happen until the spring of 2004 for next softball season, there is a possibility that the majority of the team, playing in summer tournaments on a league team, could play on the field by next month. “I’ve still got to talk to them about it, but if the sod takes good hold and we get a few other things done, the place can host a game,” said Pearson. The Rotarians of Pigeon Forge put up $25,000 for the new field according to softball coach Mike Pearson. The facility is located on the grounds of the high school, on the high side of the back entrance. Its location puts in a higher elevation than the baseball field and football field, so high waters aren’t as much of a concern. The drainage and water systems were installed under the field earlier in the year. The Lady Tigers will call the new field home at the start of the new school year. Pigeon Forge had its best season yet in softball this past spring. The team advanced to the double elimination rounds of the district tournament.