UHS baseball advanced now on deck

Construct it, and they’ll come.

So goes the (paraphrased) quote from “Area of Desires,” the 1989 mystical film in regards to the Iowa farmer who decides to construct a baseball diamond in his cornfield someday.

In Morgantown, Heidi and Greg Matheny, a married couple whose kids got here up enjoying sports activities at College Excessive College, need to do the identical factor for the sprawling campus on Baker Ridge.

Nicely, really, their dream runs a number of fields past the film.

Their imaginative and prescient, as they instructed members of the Monongalia County Board of Training on Tuesday night time, features a baseball diamond and a softball subject.

Tennis courts, too.

Don’t neglect the cross-country course that may spiral out from the advanced – to go together with one other subject, the place the Hawks marching band can apply its halftime present.

Go to https://www.uhssportscomplex.com/ for the complete particulars on the venture and the launch of its marketing campaign.

It gained’t be low-cost, the couple stated. It’s going to take some $5 million to make this dream actual.

Nonetheless, identical to Kevin Costner within the film, Heidi Matheny stated she hopes all of the gamers concerned – or, who’re about to be concerned – act on the bases-loaded convergence for this one.

“We actually have an amazing group of fogeys proper now,” she stated. “We’ve got a whole lot of in-kind help we need to capitalize on.”

That features capitalizing on College Excessive’s literal subject – the 90-acre expanse it calls dwelling.

A hilly, lofty expanse, Greg Matheny stated, that has the perfect scenic views and sunsets ever provided on a soccer Friday night time throughout the area.

“I feel everyone knows you’re not gonna discover a higher place,” he stated.

Heidi Matheny, in the meantime, says she hopes the venture, and the grant proposal she wrote to go together with it, finds place via AMLER, the Deserted Mine Lands Revitalization Program.

Since its founding in 2016, AMLER has awarded greater than $180 in such monies for such tasks throughout the Mountain State.

AMLER, although, traditionally, doesn’t give full {dollars} for the complete worth of the tasks it considers.

Which is exactly why Heidi Matheny, in the way in which of a supervisor calling for a sacrifice fly to deliver a runner throughout the plate from third, went for all of it in her request – so she could possibly be talked down, if AMLER does give the nod.

“I’ll take what I can get,” she stated.

She’ll additionally take all that aforementioned in-kind help, additionally, which, in lots of circumstances, is coming by means like-minded contractors who’ve already provided to begin churning the earth for this real-life subject of desires.

This system that might deliver the venture dwelling favors such late-inning rallies, she stated.

Mon President Ron Lytle agreed – and gave his personal Area of Desires riff.

If the folks arrive, he stated, the advanced will get constructed.

“We’d like folks with strong buy-in,” stated the board president, who can also be help of the venture.

“The entire neighborhood has to purchase in for this venture to occur.”