AMORY – This week marks a new chapter for the Amory School District’s baseball and softball programs as the brand new facilities hosted their first home games. Both programs have been displaced since the March 24, 2023 EF-3 tornado destroyed the former facilities.
“We’ve definitely gone beyond trying to have the best in the state of Mississippi to having the best in the country. The thing we were trying to accomplish was not only having it at that standard and that level but that it still feels familiar. You want to show people it’s unbelievable but at the same time have it still look the way it looked – just ratcheted up a couple of notches,” said district director of operations Coty Cox.
“The standard of baseball and softball at this school has been established for a really long time and now we can honestly say we have facilities that reflect those standards,” he added.
Amory’s closest opponent with a turf field is Corinth.
“This is something nobody has seen before. I’d say it’s one of the best high school facilities in the United States,” said district superintendent Brian Jones. “When we designed this, we tried to design it for the next 25, 30, 40 to 50 years.”
He encouraged people to come to games to support the teams, even if they don’t have children playing.
The seating capacity for the baseball complex is roughly 500, and the softball facility can accommodate approximately 300 fans. The backstops at each field are six feet tall.
“I think it will feel like a true stadium, and that’s what we were trying to get – a stadium feel for our high school kids, and I think we accomplished that,” Jones said.
He expressed appreciation to the Monroe County School District for allowing Amory to use fields at Hamilton and Smithville high schools for home games following the tornado, just like Tupelo did when the football team was displaced.
“They played [Feb. 7], and [baseball coach Chris] Pace said that was their 97th straight away game. When you think about having to endure that for three years, given the legacy this program has and what what they were able to accomplish, I can’t think of another group that deserves getting the best you can possibly get. Softball had to endure the exact same hardship being on the road,” Cox said.
“Keeping a program intact is one thing I don’t think gets enough recognition. It’s one thing to do it and it’s another thing to do it and maintain the standard. I think a lot of places would have folded and you would have seen programs completely decimated. To keep that intact and keep them constantly looking forward, there needed to be something like this on the other end of that rainbow,” he added.
Both teams began practice Feb. 9, which was the first day they got to see how the fields would play.
Just getting to see it for the first time and play on it for the first time, they were absolutely floored,” Cox said.
“You don’t really know how the ball is going to hop and if it’s going to do what they say it’s going to do. It was very obvious almost from the beginning this is probably the best playing surface out of anything other than Dudy Noble in the state. The whole system is designed to play like a natural field, and there’s no rubber in any of the in-field,” he added.
Shredded coconut husks were used for the turf areas, and ground olive pits were used for dirt areas.
“That simulates a dirt hop and a grass hop,” he said. “All the kids said it was unbelievable. You don’t get any bad hops, and everything is as true as it can be.”
Rozier Construction mobilized for the project last June. The overall cost for the baseball and softball facilities was $10.2 million, and the project came in under budget.
“The city has gone above and beyond to help us be under budget,” Jones said.
Both concession stands, and their grilling porches, have TVs that will livestream games. They also have screens with menus.
Musco Sports Lighting, which has the capability to flash like at the football stadium, is installed at both facilities, and the complexes have Danley speakers. They’re both the same brands used at Division 1 college stadiums. The same company used for the football stadium’s jumbotron – Dactronics – was used for jumbrotrons at the new facilities.
“The money for the sound system was donated by Mr. James Prude, who is an Amory graduate who put money in the Panther Restoration Fund. We contacted him about where he’d like for some of his money to go and he asked us for some ideas. We said we needed a sound system,” Jones said, adding Prude’s contribution also provided for the football stadium’s sound system.
There are also double bullpens for home and visitors.
Behind the scenes, there are coaches offices, locker rooms, conference rooms, restrooms, ample storage spaces and laundry rooms, along with training rooms for sports medicine, workout areas and premiere netting for batting cages in the field houses.
Jones said after the new Mississippi National Guard Armory is constructed, the area will all tie in.
“Yesterday, it was really cool to see softball and baseball finally able to be back out here. We had track practice going on the brand new track that we’ve never had before. Tennis was hosting a match. There were people playing pickleball and there were all kinds of kids at Panther Park. People were playing on the basketball courts, and there was an archery meet going on in the gym. This is where life happens. This is where our city comes to congregate and do the things they love to do, and it needed to reflect how special of a place our town is and I think we accomplished that,” Cox said.
