{"id":7031,"date":"2017-10-06T22:27:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T02:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=7031"},"modified":"2017-10-16T08:37:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T12:37:06","slug":"batter-landstown-baseball-field-repairs-underway-tornado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/batter-landstown-baseball-field-repairs-underway-tornado\/","title":{"rendered":"Batter up! Landstown baseball field repairs underway after tornado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Landstown High School varsity baseball coach Dave Hart was out to dinner with his family Friday evening, March 31, when his phone suddenly became inundated with text messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started getting text messages that said \u2018Your building\u2019s gone. The field is gone.\u2019 And, then someone sent me a picture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hart and his wife immediately drove to the field.<\/p>\n

The dugout had significant structural damage and the concession stand was damaged beyond repair. Other parts of the field, including the backstop, bleachers, fencing and flagpole were also damaged.<\/p>\n

The baseball field, like other areas of Virginia Beach, had just been struck by a tornado.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just two months into the school\u2019s baseball season, which runs from February through May, Hart said that he was in disbelief about what had happened. However, in the grand scheme of things he counted himself lucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you lose a baseball field it\u2019s heartbreaking that it\u2019s gone, but there were many people who for months weren\u2019t in their homes,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n

Hart said that teams in Virginia Beach high schools and also Chesapeake and Norfolk, were quick to extend offers to help. Landstown\u2019s teams finished the baseball season practicing in the gym and using the fields at Green Run and Kellam high schools to practice on a field. Six of Landstown\u2019s home varsity baseball games were also played at Kellam while the junior varsity baseball team played their three remaining home games on their opponent\u2019s field.<\/p>\n

But by next season, Landstown baseball will be back home. In fact, repairs are anticipated to be completed next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building a dugout that\u2019s a little larger to better suit their needs and also has storage, which it didn\u2019t have before,\u201d said Tony Arnold, the school division\u2019s executive director of Facilities Services.<\/p>\n

The concession stand will be wider and spaces will be reconfigured to function better for users.<\/p>\n

As an example, the press box, which is and will continue to be in the concession stand, will have a better view of the field.\u00a0 Arnold compared the repairs to a mini modernization of a school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, [the buildings] were torn down for us and we\u2019re replacing them with 21st<\/sup> century buildings,\u201d Arnold stated.<\/p>\n

Outfield fencing and wind screens around the field have already been repaired, with additional fencing to be added after the dugout and the concession stand are completed.\u00a0The backstop, bleachers and flagpole, which also incurred damage, will also be replaced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The footings and foundation blocks are now in place for both the concession stand and dugout with repairs anticipated to be completed in late November, likely before Thanksgiving Day \u2013 in time for the baseball team to prepare for opening day next season.<\/p>\n

Funding for the repairs are coming from the school division\u2019s self-insurance fund.<\/p>\n

As for the team, Coach Hart said that although the team has adjusted to using another school\u2019s field, \u201cwe\u2019re all ready to get our own home field back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Landstown High School varsity baseball coach Dave Hart was out to dinner with his family Friday evening, March 31, when his phone suddenly became inundated with text messages. \u201cI started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-7031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-landstown-high"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7034,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7031\/revisions\/7034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}