Limited number of practice locations as as well as rocks and holes in existing fields may be limiting little league ability to practice for games
At the Tuesday, January 10th Uvalde City Council Meeting, Adam Martinez spoke to the Council about the current conditions of the limited number of practice locations for Uvalde Little League teams and their respective conditions for adequately preparing for regular games which are held at Kiwanis Fields located on Garner Field Road. Currently Uvalde Little League Baseball teams have to find alternative locations to the Kiwanis Baseball Complex to practice. Teams have been using the Uvalde CISD owned fields with backstops located on Camp Street as well as DeLeon Park located on Silvestre Street as well as privately owned fields scattered around town, according to City of Uvalde Director of Planning Susan Anderson.
At Tuesday’s Uvalde City Council meeting Adam Martinez presented requests concerning the sports complex: to consider allowing shared access to ball fields and to create a practice field in an unused area on the east side of the complex.
“The first request I have is building a practice field between the A&M Center and the Aviles Softball Field,” Martinez said. He explained to the Council that the area is currently unused and that old fencing could be recycled from the current Little League fields as the Houston Astros Foundation would be replacing the fencing soon.
“Some of the practice fields out there have just a backstop, no fencing. It’s a big difference when a kid can play and actually see a fence and hit a ball and actually rolls to the fence; it’s a different feeling,” Martinez said. He went on to say later in his presentation that the current fields being used for baseball practice have rocks and haven’t been improved.
“Also you can’t slide on those fields. The first time they (the players) are sliding is when they are playing a game,” he said.
Martinez’s second request was to allow public access to the batting cages nearest to the A&M Center.
“If we have a practice field, we could also use the batting cages,” he said.
Martinez also requested that the city approve the rental of the City’s baseball fields for Select Teams, softball tournaments and for men’s softball and tournaments.
In a final request he asked that a new practice field be dedicated to the lives that were lost (on May 24th), Xavier and Makenna, who played softball and baseball. ” I do want it dedicated to them,” he said.
After Martinez spoke, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin responded to Martinez requests:
“I would like a group set up, a meeting between your group, the Little League Board and these two councilmen,” McLaughlin said, referring to Councilmen Everardo “Lalo” Zamora and Chip King.
“We have to come up with a plan that works for everybody,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin stated the baseball fields belong to the Citizens of Uvalde and believes they should have access to them, but is concerned about the accountability in maintaining the fields and making sure the facilities aren’t damaged.
“We don’t have access to the schools. We see the school district has fenced off its properties,” McLaughlin said. He went on to say the City run little league basketball program cannot use the Uvalde CISD basketball courts due to changes in security and the city may have to look into building basketball courts as well.
