SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Sierra Vista’s investment in youth sports over the past few years has been a big win for the kids playing and for the city’s economy.
The city's new soccer fields are already proving to be a game-changer.
For baseball and softball, coaches no longer have to maintain the fields themselves before games. The city’s sports division now takes care of it, allowing coaches to focus time and attention on their teams.
“We’re invested personally in this, and it is personal. It is recognizing the needs in your community and serving it,” said Laura Wilson, Sierra Vista’s Parks, Recreation & Library Director.
“We have a lot of youth in this community. It’s great that the city is really paying attention to that,” said Audra Hildreth, president of Sierra Vista Ponytail Little League. “It’s amazing cause, you know, we’re all volunteer. So that gives us more time to do the stuff that we need to do for the kids.”
The extra time and better field conditions now allow the city’s baseball and softball organizations to host tournaments, opening up a world of economic possibilities for the area.
“In the past, we never had tournaments here. If we did, it was one or two tournaments,” Sierra Vista Little League President Rory Volgende said.
But that’s changing now. Just last year, USA Softball and USSSA Softball hosted tournaments in Sierra Vista while facilities in Tucson and Phoenix were closed due to COVID-19 protocols.
The feedback was so positive that USA Softball has committed to hosting multiple tournaments in the city every year, according to Sierra Vista Diamonds Fast Pitch Organization President Bruce Gooch.
“The biggest thing that we heard was, ‘I did not realize that Sierra Vista had the type of facilities to host tournaments’ until they actually got here to see it,” he said.
“When they come in, they say, ‘Oh, this is a beautiful place. We didn’t realize it was so nice here,’” Hildreth added.
Sierra Vista hosted several baseball tournaments last year—ending with the Senior Little League Team becoming state champions.
“We have families able to watch their player play here instead of driving to Nogales or Douglas and stuff like that,” Volgende said. “The kids play better when you have more family members watching. And that’s the bottom line.”
Down the street, a revamped Veterans Memorial Park Sports Complex is coming soon. It will feature a new irrigation system, reconfigured fields with improved drainage and artificial turf for the football field, plus a new roadway connecting the complex to the Domingo Paiz soccer, baseball and softball fields.
Those improvements will allow bigger athletic tournaments to come to the city, or more of them at one time, according to city officials. Combined with new high-efficiency LED lights that have already been installed, they will help the city conserve water and energy as well.
The VMP improvements will cost more than $3 million, but about $1.5 million of that cost is covered by a grant awarded by Arizona State Parks & Trails, with funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The city plans to keep investing in its home teams, so visiting teams and families will keep coming back.
“I think that we’ve definitely scratched the surface and showed what we have to offer here. I don’t think we can put the genie back in the bottle,” Wilson said. “I think that Sierra Vista’s on the map for sports tourism and we’re going to keep expanding that, as long as there’s a need and desire in our community to do so.”
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