Several changes have been made to spring sports facilities at Seymour, Brownstown Central, Crothersville and Trinity Lutheran high schools.

Seymour

The changes at Seymour High School came to the track at Bulleit Stadium.When the turf football field was put in, the track was resurfaced, and some of the field events were moved.

All of the field events are now at the west end of the track. The shot put rings were moved to the west end of the visiting football stands, and the long jump is now on the edge of the long jump area next to the goal posts.

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The discus, high jump and pole vault areas were not changed.

“We tried to get things together,” girls track coach Bob Sexton said. “One of the top things we looked at was the throwing events, the shot put and the discus. We felt those parents were going from one end of the track to the other.

“Now they’re all down on one end. (Parents) can put their chairs up and almost see both throwing events at the same time.”

There are also stands near the discus and shot put areas that spectators can sit in.

“With the long jump, we were able to put that next to the high jump, and it allows one jumping coach to be able to watch both sets of athletes that are long-jumping and also high- jumping,” Sexton said. “The pole vault is not changing, but it also gets us close to the other events.

“The track is much softer than before. The finish line has moved further down and kind of lined up to all of the other tracks that we go to.”

Sexton said the start of the 300 low hurdles, “is not in the curve; they start on the straightaway. If you’re in the stands for the 100 and the high hurdles you’re going to see the entire race, where before you maybe didn’t see the start as well as you will now.

“There are a lot of good changes for us.”

Brownstown

At Brownstown’s softball field, a new press box/scorers’ booth was built behind the stands that sit behind home plate.Darren Bryant, assistant softball coach at Brownstown said $34,000 was spent on the improvements to the softball field at the elementary school.

“The company that sold the grandstand system, assembled that in January, and had a platform to build a press box on top of that,” Bryant said. “The school bought the materials, and myself and Tracy Stidam donated our labor, and we’ve been building it. Justin Stuckwisch is donating his time doing the wiring.

“We have a new PA system. We had to do some work on the scoreboard. The school put $1,200 into the scoreboard, so that should be good to go.”

The height of the backstop has been raised from 15 feet to 27 feet.

“Indiana Steel donated the (12 foot) poles and the school bought the net.” Bryant said.

“It’s pretty nice. A lot of other places also have pretty nice fields, but they don’t have the two batting cages and an extra field on the side to warm up. The bathrooms are close. You don’t have to go to the school. The concession stand is close. (The improvements) are a lot of years coming.”

Changes made to the junior varsity diamond include a cement base under the fence that runs from the first base dugout to the third base dugout and new backstop.

“We’ve poured some concrete at the JV diamond,” BC head softball coach Monte Ault said. “We’ve really improved the fields. People are going to be surprised when they go over there. They don’t know what we’ve done to it this year.”

Changes have also been made to backstop area at the baseball field at the high school as a 4-foot-high brick wall has been put in place running from the third-base dugout to the first-base dugout.

“The backstop will have netting about 35 feet tall,” Mark DeHart, athletics director at Brownstown Central, said. “We also completed construction of a locker room, restroom and coaches office at our indoor hitting facility.

“Other projects to be completed this summer are resurfacing of tennis courts, new track/football stadium and press box, resurfacing of track, and new bleachers in the main gym.”

Trinity Lutheran

At Trinity Lutheran, the baseball infield has been “skinned”, and looks like most other high school diamonds the Cougars play on.“We were looking for ways we could improve our field,” athletics director Aaron Rudzinski said. “What it allowed us to do is to have a much more level playing field, and maybe a better looking field.”

Rudzinski said when the field was built it had a skinned infield.

Grass was added to what was the skinned part of the infield to make it more look more like Springs Valley and West Washington, which hosted sectionals that Trinity played in.

“The purpose to changing it up is to have a more predictable playing surface for ground balls and to give it a different look,” Rudzinski said.

Lights have been installed at the football field, and if a track meets runs long, the lights can be turned on and the athletes wouldn’t have to finish in the dark.

“It will give us some flexibility if we have to postpone or if we have to start later,” Rudzinski said. “It’s our backup plan.”

Crothersville

At Crothersville, baseball coach Jared Richey said a lot of work has been done to the baseball diamond the past two years.He said two years ago new drainage tile was put in through the infield and outfield.

“Last fall Turfdogs, a company from Indianapolis, came in and reworked the infield,” Richey said. “They put down sod along the baselines from home to first base and from home to third base. They rebuilt the pitcher’s mound and batting circle.

“They built bullpen mounds along third-base and first-base. The fence along the third base and first base lines was replaced.”

The bullpens are inside the fences, and a protective fence (to protect the catcher when a pitcher is warming up) was put in place

Richey said work is also being done on the grass in the infield and outfield.

“The field is much smoother and should make for true grounders. The drainage was the biggest difference. Before, if it sprinkled we were done for a few days,” he said.