When you drive past the sophomore lot you may notice the baseball field with shiny new turf. After weeks of massive machinery, mounds of dirt, and sounds of bulldozers. Shawnee Mission School District began construction over Thanksgiving break due to the excessive maintenance required by grass fields.

Senior Anden Oviedo is happy for the renovation because the old field “ was getting pretty bad. We had to rake the dirt every time practice ended.”

The administrative team — athletic director Mark Mahoney, principal Todd Dain and assistant principals Jake Bauer, Becky Thiessen and Ben Richardson — and head baseball coach Bryce McElroy knew about the renovation plans around November 1. Mahoney said that before they could go ahead with the plans they first had to make sure the board approved it and followed all the district policies. In the end, the BOE decided to put infield turf at South, Shawnee Mission North, Shawnee Mission Northwest & Broadmoor Technical Center (Shawnee Mission West practice field).

Junior Kade Uniak thinks that the “old field had character” and “helps us realize that we are a program that’s rising, taking the next step to become something bigger”

According to the Nov. 11 board documents under the “ATG High School baseball Improvement BOE” subsection, the renovation’s estimated cost was $2,419,032.00, including a 5% contingency for any unforeseen circumstances or additional work required.

The estimated aWmount for South infield is $566,500.00. This renovation also includes getting a new batting cage, warning track, fence, two double wide bullpens, new home plate, pitcher rubbers, new set of bases, and more.

The players, coaches, and administration have been pushing for this renovation for a while. The reason for this renovation is because there is a natural drain that runs under the baseball field, and it causes the baseball teams to not be able to practice for multiple days straight because the old field got muddy from rain or snow and became dangerous to practice on.

So while the district decided to redo most of the school’s baseball field into a turf baseball field.South were the lucky ones to go first and have it done for the 2025 baseball season while the other school renovation is this summer. This is a good thing because as Senior Caden McCracken put it the old turf was “ just really hard to keep clean, keep a good playing surface” and having a turf field would fix those problems

Now even though this was a coincidence Coach McElroy has been wanting a turf field since he got here because he has seen other schools that have turf fields and says that they have “the advantage because they are practicing on it all time” whether there is rain or snow they can be out there.

A turf field will affect the teams practices because “it’s gonna be a lot nicer, some of the hops we’re gonna get from balls, and just the overall quality is gonna be better.” as Sophmore Connor McCool put it.

Yet, it is not just the practices that will be affected but the morale on the field. All players are looking forward to the end of this renovation for different reasons. Junior Otto Knust is looking forward to “practice every day. I’m going to be a lot more excited to just go outside and play baseball every day because it’s on turf.”

Now with all this good the new turf baseball field will bring to the season there is some bad. The thing about this new turf baseball field is that the renovation was scheduled to be completed before the season and now the earliest it will be completed is April 1st. South started renovation around Thanksgiving and was supposed to finish before the baseball season started but had multiple delays because of the snowstorms.

This change of schedule has been a hardship for baseball because they couldn’t practice at school. They had to practice in different fields, rent different facilities, find transportation to those fields, and grant leeway since players have to drive to and from practices.“ We’re having to find different ways to get creative with what we are doing,” said Coach McElroy. Baseball practiced at 3 & 2, where we hold our home baseball games. The teams handled the change of being at different practicing fields with ease but as Senior Caden McCraken put it “it’s not the same, the environment and the vibe is definitely just better at South”

Despite the challenges that came with the baseball field construction, the baseball players, coaches, and the administration are all happy we were first to receive a renovation. While our summer camps won’t be affected, the other schools’ summer camps might need to move elsewhere as they are installing their fields in the summer. Coach McElroy put the ups and downs of this renovation as “It just kind of depends on the way you look at it.”