It’s not quite “Field of Dreams” yet, but it’s getting there.
Upgraded baseball facilities are planned for Hermosa View School to serve the burgeoning Hermosa Beach Little League. Improvements to the backstop, fencing, dugouts and benches are in the works for the East Hermosa campus, with plans to install them during the President’s Week holiday at the close of February.
The improvements will be financed by the local Little League, and come as the organization struggles with excess capacity.
“Little League got by for 65 years here with one facility,” said Trent Stamp, former president of Hermosa Beach Little League. “In the last two to three years, we’ve simply outgrown our ability to give every kid a chance to play.”
Little League officials say they first went to the city to find new places to play and practice, but found no opportunities for expansion in the city’s existing network of parks. So they turned to the Hermosa Beach City School District, which is experiencing a severe space crunch of its own.
Years of climbing enrollment, combined with the failure of school capital improvement bonds, have left the district with few options. The district has deployed portable classrooms, and occasionally struggles with providing enough recreational space for students.
Current league president Dunham Stewart came before the Hermosa Beach School Board last week, explaining the planned improvements, and noted the common bond between the two entities.
“Little League is growing the same way the schools are growing,” Stewart said. “The same things that are happening to you are happening to us.”
In some ways, school facilities are a natural fit for the league. The vast majority of the league’s 515 players attend city schools, and approximately 240 of them are of the age served by View School, the district’s campus for kindergarten through second grade.
But expansion also represents a big change for Hermosa Beach Little League, where all games are played at Clark Field. Manhattan Beach Little League, by contrast, scatters its games over five different fields.
This parallels the tight-knit character of Hermosa’s city schools, Stewart said, where pupils are grouped by grade level rather than geography, and spend their entire K-8 career with the same group of kids.
League officials say the shared experience of playing at Clark Field is special, but that it is ultimately secondary to satisfying the growing demand from city youth.
“Did we want to tell kids they can’t play recreational baseball? Did we want to cut back on what they did, only have a few practices and a few games? Or did we want to find alternate facilities?” Stamp said. “It was a pretty easy choice.”
The league initially wanted to construct a brand new field, but logistical difficulties meant that it would not be ready in time for the coming season. Opening day is in early March.
The bulk of league games and practices in the coming season will still take place at Clark Field, Stewart said. Events at View School will match the playing age of the population, with plans to use the improved facility for coach-pitch and tee-ball divisions.
Financing for the upgrades will come in the same way the League handled improvements at Clark, through a sponsorship plan. Outreach to local businesses recently over the past years netted about 50 donations, which funded upgrades to the Clark Field snack stand.
“In the last five years we’ve been selling local sponsorships, that’s been really helpful,” said Stewart.
Once established at View School, the League will have an account with the school district for use of the facilities, with the rental amount discounted by the value of the upgrades.
“The League would still pay rent like other users,” said Superintendent Patricia Escalante. “Of course, other users don’t make improvements.”
School board members had some questions about the impact of the new activity on the local neighborhood, but were ultimately convinced that there would be minimal inconvenience, and outweighed by the benefit of bringing the league to schools.
“Those fields down at Clark are full around the clock once baseball season starts,” said board member Patti Ackerman. “It will be nice for the district to be able to participate in the community like that.”
With the upgrades in place, the league will retool its plans for a brand new field, ideally continuing its partnership with the district.
“I think we can eventually build a fabulous facility, and it won’t cost a dime of school funding,” Stamp said.
