Potters find a new home

Morning Journal/Matt Morrison
The East Liverpool softball team is playing its home games at the River Valley Baseball Complex this season after moving from Thompson Park.

EAST LIVERPOOL– East Liverpool’s softball team quietly shifted its home games to the River Valley Baseball Complex this season.

The Potters had been playing at Thompson Park’s field for about the last decade, but the school administration felt it was time to seek a better arrangement.

“We changed when we found out River Valley was trying to start a softball program,” East Liverpool athletic director Jason Duke said. “We wanted to get our program out there to kind of foster it a little bit. I believe they are still getting that process off the ground.”

There were also logistical reasons for the move.

“River Valley is more conducive to bus parking and has more spectator parking,” Duke said. “Thompson Park opens their road system every year on April 1, and softball season technically begins in February with opening weekend usually set for the third or fourth week of March, so there were logistical issues there as well.”

East Liverpool Board of Education member and Thompson Park Board President Tamar Cooper also said early season access to the field and parking were reasons why the change was made. She also reiterated the need to integrate the high school program with the softball program at the River Valley facility.

The memorandum of understanding arrangement at Thompson Park had the school district taking care of the field during the season, while Thompson Park maintained it during the other months of the year. Any field improvements had to go through the park board.

Repeated requests for costs associated with the maintenance of the Thompson Park field and the cost to use the River Valley facility were not fulfilled by Duke or East Liverpool City Schools treasurer Anson Wiegand.

Duke would only say the reason for the move was “more logistical than financial.”

The Thompson Park field had been a source of controversy in the district before.

The park board and the school district entered into an agreement to build the field at the park in 2010. The agreement was that an old little league field would be converted into the high school softball field with the correction dimensions for that sport.

The school district paid $13,900 for the renovations but complaints surfaced in summer of 2016 when the project included a grass infield, which was viewed as unsuitable for use by the high school team.

In fall of 2016, a team of landscaping professionals and school related volunteers removed the grass.

The Potters began play on that field in the 2017 season.