FALLING ROCK, W.Va. — Football programs which lost equipment in the June flood in West Virginia were made whole by generous donations from across the country. But now other sports also impacted by the high water are starting to consider their upcoming seasons. Herbert Hoover High School’s baseball team faces a dire predicament.
The baseball facilities at Hoover, which had just undergone massive renovations, were heavily damaged by the high water. J-R Oliver, President of the Hoover Grand Slam Club, said it has been disheartening, but they have to look forward.
“We had about a $300,000 upgrade to the baseball field which was just completed in March prior to the 2016 season,” he said. “We built it so it would be there for a while and we could make a step forward with the program. The flood came and now we’re not quite back to square one, but it did knock us back a few feet.”
A thick deposit of Elk River silt covers the infield of the baseball diamond which sits next to the condemned high school building. Dugouts were damaged and the team’s batting cage and other practice facilities were destroyed like so much of the Hoover campus. Volunteers did a quick turnaround to prepare the school’s football field for the season in only a few days. The attention now turns next door to the baseball field.
“We need to concentrate on the baseball field because in our region we’ll have to get the sod down, the dirt and new drainage back in place before winter time comes,” said Oliver. “When the ground freezes you can’t do all that stuff and a lot of people don’t know that because baseball season isn’t until the spring.”
The group raised the money for the field and stadium upgrades last year and they’ll try to recreate the effort, but Oliver admits it’s hard to expect local businesses who were part of the last upgrade to be able to step forward.
“If people see our story nationally, they might be wiling to help out,” he said. “The local businesses, the ones that are back in business, they’ve helped so many other people out in our region we really don’t want to ask people who are already hurting.”
Oliver hopes nationwide they’ll find people willing to chip in to help the team reestablish footing and added there are a number of high school baseball players depending on him to get it done.
“We’ve got nine returning varsity seniors on this year’s team,” Oliver said. “I made a promise to those kids we would get the field back in order and they would be playing their games at the field this year. I intend to follow through on that promise.”
To contribute or contact the Hoover Grand Slam Club, visit them on Facebook or at their GoFundMe site.