Photo from Hoover Bucs Baseball Facebook page
The new artificial turf at Hoover High School's baseball field as it stood on Dec. 30, 2023.
Contractors are working diligently to complete the baseball and softball field renovations at Hoover and Spain Park high schools in time for their first home games in mid-February, the school system’s operations director told the Hoover school board Tuesday night.
All four fields are getting artificial turf and new lights installed.
The Spain Park softball field was released for throwing practice Tuesday but still has some gatework and other finishing work going on, Operations Director Matt Wilson said.
The Hoover baseball field should be released for practice by next week, and the Spain Park baseball field should be released for practice by Jan. 25, Wilson said. Meanwhile, The Spain softball field should be ready for practice by the end of this month, he said.
New LED lighting already has arrived and is being stored on the worksites, and work to install the new lights could begin as early as Wednesday, but a few contract details still were being worked out Tuesday, Wilson said.
The goal is to have the light installation completed at all four fields by Feb. 4 and have all the turf work completed and cleaned up by Feb. 10, he said.
Hoover’s first home baseball home is scheduled for Feb. 16, while the first Hoover home softball game is set for Feb. 17. Spain Park’s first home softball game is scheduled for Feb. 18, and Spain Park’s first home baseball game is set for Feb. 19, according to online schedules.
New restroom additions also are being constructed at both schools’ baseball and softball fields, and those projects should be completed by mid-March, depending on how weather goes, Wilson said.
Meanwhile, work also continues on the new performing arts center at Hoover High. Lighting work currently is being done, and seating should be installed by the end of the month, Wilson said.
The new performing arts center, which was built onto the end of the school nearest the on-campus football stadium, is taking up about 214 parking spaces, but school officials think they can recoup about 170 of those parking spaces elsewhere, Wilson said.
The school system also is conducting a feasibility study to see if a hillside near the Hoover High School baseball field can be removed to make way for more parking there, Wilson said. School officials should know more information about that in about 60 days, he said.
