AHSAA state softball tournament opens away as city contemplates improvements to Lagoon Park

The city of Montgomery recently added a restroom facility to Lagoon Park softball but other improvements must be made if the AHSAA state tournament is to return. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

The Alabama High School Athletic Association state softball tournament opens play on Tuesday as 52 teams chase the dream of winning a state championship.

For the first time, the high school fast pitch showcase won’t be held at Lagoon Park Softball Complex. AHSAA officials gave up waiting on modifications to the complex and moved the tournament to Oxford.

Will it ever come back? That’s a question only city officials can determine. Does the mayor and his administration want the city’s biggest sporting event to return to the Capital City or is serving as the host site for championship events in high school down on the list of priorities?

“I’m hoping that’s what is going to happen,” Brew Tech coach Brian Pittman said. “That everyone is going to look at it and be like, hey, the city wants it back. It’s a great park, but you’ve got to get it updated.”

The previous administration understood the importance of keeping the AHSAA state softball tournament in Montgomery but failed to follow through on many of the issues that plagued an aging softball complex.

Five years ago, city officials were on the leading edge of technology in studying LED lighting in an effort to bring it to the five-field complex. Five years later, not one light has been upgraded. 

About the same time, city officials were insistent on removing trees and berms between the fields in order to erect shaded areas. To this day, no shade has been installed. 

“They (AHSAA officials) told them what they needed to do and I don’t think they did some of it,” said Macon East Academy coach Glynn Lott, whose team has reached the finals of the Alabama Independent School Association state tournament at Lagoon every year since 2012. “They built new bathrooms, but I think the biggest thing (AHSAA officials) want is batting cages. They could have done that on the back of the bathrooms.

“They wanted batting cages and they wanted a shaded area. I went to a park in Lanett and they have those three-sided shades. We’re about to put them over our (school) playgrounds. The best thing about that is it keeps foul balls off of you. One of the worst things we’ve had happen at Lagoon Park during a state tournament is we got a girl hit with a foul ball from (the adjoining field). You don’t ever see it coming. That (shaded covers) keeps that off you.”

Lott points at his own school softball field, which is slowly but surely updating the illumination with LED lights, one bulb at a time. There were modifications made to Lagoon Park’s Field 6 to convert it to a stadium for championship games, but the addition of two new restroom facilities in 2020 is the only change to the original five-field complex built in the late 1970s.

The facility remains the only one of its stature with chain-link backstops instead of netting, with small chain-link team areas instead of actual dugouts, with outdated lighting that leaves areas in poor illumination because the fields were shifted decades ago while the lights remained in the same place and temporary fences in a sport were athletic outfielders could climb a wall to grab a fly ball if a wall existed.  

“Even though you’ve got better temporary fencing up now, they’re not like the plastic ones, it’s still dangerous,” Pittman said. “That kid goes back to make a play and goes through the fence, you just don’t know what’s about to happen. You need a wall with padding.”

Are city officials listening? They are certainly working overtime to come up with plans to lure the state tournament back to Lagoon when the two-year contract with Oxford expires in 2022. But will they implement those plans in time? A long laundry list of necessary upgrades starts with batting cages.

“They’re going to have to go out there and build batting cages, a warmup area, put some mounds where pitchers can actually get loose,” Alabama Christian Academy coach Chris Goodman said. “You show up out there and you’re trying to find a place for your pitcher to get loose. We’re lucky. We’ve been there so many times, we just get loose here (at the school) and drive over.”

Macon East Academy, like ACA, has a long history of success in the state tournament. One asset is a facility in a nearby industrial park with private batting cages owned by assistant coach Jerry Hughes. 

“We get to go hit before a tournament and we hit during the tournament,” Lott said. “We’re just lucky we have that.”

Another primary issue is the use of temporary fencing. Alabama and Auburn visited the complex for a game in 2014 and while he’s been relatively silent on the issue, Alabama coach Patrick Murphy was incensed when his left fielder crashed into the temporary fence -- knocking the fence over and causing the left fielder to fall down -- trying to catch a fly ball that ended up being a home run. 

The game of softball has evolved and the city of Montgomery hasn’t evolved with it. Outfielders now climb the wall for fly balls the way their male counterparts do in baseball.  

“Whether it’s Lagoon or Fain, make the park for fast pitch softball,” Goodman said. “Instead of temporary fences, you’re going to have to put up some (permanent) fences.”

“Why don’t they go with Lagoon being all fast pitch?” Lott asked. “Let Fain be your slow pitch park if you want to have that. I think (my list of priorities would be) batting cages and shade. And fences would be my third choice.”

Lott’s third choice may be Pittman’s first choice. Tweets that went viral a couple of years ago during the state tournament show temporary fencing that was knocked down by a round of thunderstorms that went through the area. While Twitter has often included viewpoints that offer few facts, the perception of an outdated and unsafe facility spread throughout the state, especially in places where people rarely if ever visit Lagoon Park. 

“The first thing is, you’ve got to convert all these fields into fast pitch,” Pittman said. “You’ve got to bring the fences in. One of the biggest issues is the temporary fences. From my friends up north (Alabama), that was number one. Bring permanent fences in at the distance you need to, take the infield and cut it for fast pitch, not slow pitch. Take Fain Park and make that for your slow pitch fields.”

Even now, city leaders believe an excellent grounds crew trained to host championship events puts the city out front among contending municipalities that want championship high school events. But Oxford’s theft of the state softball tournament should, instead, serve as a wakeup call that the AHSAA baseball tournament may be the next tournament to leave if city leaders don’t put more upgrades in their facilities.  

“Look at the renovations that have been done (at Lagoon),” Pittman said. “The staff out here has done a great job. They resodded and the fields are playing great. But it’s got to have some updates. You go up to Oxford and you’re going to see it when you walk in there. You’ve got stadium seating on one field that’s turf and that’s what you’re getting to. Baseball is played at Riverwalk, all the other sports are played at big-time venues and then softball was being played with temporary fences.”