Field House History

This sketch was done by Don McDermott. WBLL's vision of the future.

Below is a good history of WBLL. Please take the time to read this, so the next time you hear someone ask, "Why don't they do...." you can tell then what has been done. The biggest factor is we rely completely on the donations and the time of parent volunteers. Also, WBLL funds the up keep and maintenance of the Softball Fields. In return the City of Chesapeake allows us usage of the fields after the High School.

This article was written by Chuck and Deb Anderson. (June 2006)

Western Branch Little League moved to the Western Branch High school fields when my daughter, now a sophomore in college was a 7year old coach pitch player in 1994. The fields had dugouts 4 foot high with no roofs and dirt/mud for floors. The infields were grass and every spring we would have to go out and cut base paths out of the grass on one field. Concessions existed even then. The team parent was responsible for picking up the plastic bin which would sit next to them during the game as they simultaneously would watch the game, sell snacks and try to keep the chocolate in some shade so it wouldn’t melt.

Immediately every family wanted something better for their daughters. So we began lobbying for better fields. The answer came soon enough, “you build them and they will become a reality”, so we began fundraising for the $75,000 needed for new fields. After years of raffles, donations and an assortment of fundraisers in 1997 we built and relocated the fields we use today. They are a far cry from the rusty backstop and grass fields that we began with. The first blue box came into our lives and it was no longer necessary to store equipment in people’s garages or to carry lawnmowers to the fields a couple of times a week to cut the grass. We thought we were in the big time.

With the new fields, concessions sort of moved into the modern age. A couple of parents took turns driving their pickup trucks to the field loaded with snacks and now COLD drinks and selling out of the back of their trucks. We still needed to pay for the fields we were now using, since 25 parents had cosigned for the loans. Then a parent thought why don’t we find a small trailer and we can pull the concession stand instead of having to unload and load a pickup truck every night? So we went looking and the present concession trailer came into our lives. We were looking for about a 12 foot trailer and instead a construction company donated the present concession trailer for just the cost of moving it. It arrived just a week before the first state tournament we every hosted in 1999, The families of WBLL got together and in the space of a week, we pressure washed and painted it, had electricity run to it, built the front deck and discovered that 450’ of garden hose would get potable water from the football stadium to it.

Western Branch Little League has grown. We have added three more storage boxes, added lights ($125,000) and outfield fences ($10,000) to the complex. We even have access to indoor plumbing! The rest rooms came after working with the high school athletic deportment and WBLL and its families donated money, materials and labor to building them. And this past spring a parent donated and installed artificial turf in the pitching cage on A field.

But we are now trying to take the next step and if we don’t we will soon be taking a step back. Soon the concessions trailer that was donated will have to be replaced, it leaks, creaks and is not secure having suffered numerous break-ins. The storage boxes as you all can see are rusting, leaking and cannot be counted on to keep uniforms and equipment dry and secure. So in cooperation with Western Branch High School, the Western Branch Girls Softball Boosters Club and the teams from Western Branch High and Middle Schools we are trying to take the next step and build a field house/concession stand/ storage facility. Will this solve all our future needs? No, but it will keep us from going back to the days where team parents sold concessions out of a plastic box and in order to keep uniforms clean and dry team parents had to keep them at home over the winter.

Will building the new building solve everything? No it will not. Imagine a future with an indoor batting cage and small training facility for your daughters. Maybe a field just for t-ball and coach pitch, electronic scoreboards, a concrete sidewalk from the parking lot to all fields for dry feet and better handicapped access. Covered bleachers on concrete pads, so there is no mud underfoot or the sun beating on your head. And irrigation for the fields and one maybe day water fountains in and around the fields and a second set of bathrooms down by A field. I no longer have daughters that play with WBLL, but maybe my granddaughters will and I would like them to play in a safe, first class facility, don’t you want the same for your daughters?