softball stadium receives new lights
The upcoming season is going to be very different for the Lady Rams softball team.. The recent addition of new outdoor lights at the stadium will now allow the team to play night games.
Senior Peyton Bell is very excited to play under the new lights.
“[The lights] are what we’re most excited about this year, because we’ll be playing later games this year. Last year, we played a few later games, and that’s when we played our best. So we’re really excited how that will turn out this year,” Bell said.
According to varsity softball coach Ryan Klinger, the process to install the lights has been relatively long.
“It’s been a few years, but now they are installing the lights across the county, for baseball and softball,” Klinger said. “Overall, it’s been a pretty simple process. We’ve had good support from the athletic director here to help us out with that.”
The athletic programs at Roberson are typically funded by athletics and the Rams Club, yet the county is funding the installation of the new lights, in a push to install lights on all county softball and baseball fields, at both the middle and high school levels. According to Athletic Director Laura Beatty, funds are not as plentiful as one might think.
“Athletics only gets money from gate receipts, and gate receipts, you would think that it’s a lot of money, but we have to pay ticket takers,referees, extra coaches, police, scorekeepers, all of the above, plus we pay for the Greensboro Coaching Clinic, so we’re lucky to break even with athletics. Fortunately, we have a very strong booster club that supports all athletics here,” Beatty said.
In the past, the varsity softball team would play the first game after school, followed by JV. However, if it got too dark, the JV game would often get cut short.
“Last year, JV didn’t get to finish a lot of their games because it got too dark. When that happens, if it’s a tie then they’ll try and finish the game, but if one team is winning then, they’ll just call them the winners,” junior Erica-Allyn Rhoney, who played on the team last year, said.
With the addition of the lights, the JV team will now play first, with games starting at 4:00 pm. Varsity will follow after, and will have more time to warm up and play. Klinger feels that the later start will be beneficial for students and parents.
“I think it will allow parents who work the opportunity to come and not feel rushed. And I think the athletes prefer to play at night anyway,” Klinger said.
In addition to the new lights, Klinger hopes to further expand renovations to the softball facilities.
“We hope to have indoor batting, and cover our outdoor cages, do some more work in the bull pens, and eventually add a press box. And we’re trying to build a locker room at the field too,” Klinger said.
The Roberson tennis courts were also refurbished earlier in the year, under a similar county initiative and funding as the softball lights. Senior Abhishek Das is excited to start the upcoming season playing on brand-new facilities.
“They put in new courts because our courts were pretty degenerated over the last few years, and we really needed the new courts. It will be better for us this season in terms of injuries, because the old courts were pretty bad. It will just feel better when we play,” Das said.
Beatty believes that proper venues are essential to Roberson athletics.
“We want the best athletic facilities in the county, and the softball field was lacking. Projects for the 2017-18 school year include a new track and new turf for the football field,” Beatty said.