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McHenry baseball coach Brian Rockweiler cannot wait until next season when he and his team can step outside the West Campus building to their new baseball field.
For 15 years, the Warriors have driven across town to Petersen Park on McCullom Lake Road for practices and home games. It had its advantages, most notably with lights that allowed McHenry to host sectional tournaments and finish games when the evening grew darker.
The new park not only will be more easily accessible, but will have an artificial turf infield, with a sod outfield, which will be virtually maintenance-free.
McHenry will be the first local team to have such a surface, which is Phase 3 of District 156′s renovations to its athletic facilities. Plans are for the softball field to have a turf infield for the 2025 season.
“It’ll be awesome,” Rockweiler said. “We’ll be able to walk right out of the school, we won’t have to worry about the field not being ready.”
The field will be south of the softball field on what was the Warriors’ soccer field. Soccer will now play its games on the McCracken Field turf, close to the East Campus. The fields behind McCracken, used for practices, recently were renovated.
“It’ll be awesome. We’ll be able to walk right out of the school, we won’t have to worry about the field not being ready.”
— Brian Rockweiler, McHenry baseball coach
McHenry athletic director Chris Madson said there has been considerable work done around McCracken Field with drainage, tiling and an irrigation system for those sod practice fields. Baseball now will be where soccer was and freshman baseball will use Petersen Park.
“It’s an evolutionary process. You assess the needs and where everything is at,” Madson said. “A lot changed when we made East the freshman campus. It was all in the works. Is McCracken really being utilized the way it should be? That led to the turf being put in.
“I’m learning that construction you’re usually behind on time and over on budget. The baseball field hopes to break ground in the next week or two.”
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The construction company finishing the work around McCracken also will do the new baseball field. The whole process has been in the planning for a few years.
“We did some site visits, looked at other places that had turf and got some ideas,” Rockweiler said. “I haven’t seen the final plan, but it’s pretty similar to what we saw earlier. We got some input.”
The baseball field’s right field will back up to softball’s left field. Rockweiler thinks the dimensions will be 315 down each foul line and 370 to center field, which is similar to those at Petersen Park.
Naturally, shortstop-pitcher Ryan Nagel is excited about the new field.
“It’s a really good thing for us,” Nagel said. “We can get right out to work right after school and not have to worry about people getting there safely. It’s nice when rain comes, cancellations can happen and we can get those games in that we might not.”
Nagel plays for the GRB Rays program in the summer and often plays on turf fields in travel tournaments throughout the summer.
“Turf makes hops more true and you can get easier reads on balls,” Nagel said. “I played on different turfs, some are faster than others. They’re still faster than dirt. The reaction time is easier because you know the hop will be there.”
District 156 plans to do the renovations in different phases.
“It has been in the works for a couple years,” Rockweiler said. “Toward the end of the spring, they got the go-ahead to do it. It has to happen because we don’t have a freshman field now.”
Madson liked that playing at Petersen Park created a community involvement, but knows the new field will offer convenience and efficiency.
“We’ve had teams going everywhere,” Madson said. “It’s great from a town perspective. It’s going to be awesome when it’s all done. It’s going to be really good for the athletes and coaches.”