Column: Moving softball state tournament huge success
OXFORD -- A Hoover high school administrator made eye contact with me shortly after walking into the Choccolocco Park softball park in Oxford.
“Wow!” she exclaimed, her face as bright as the sun that day. “This place is incredible!”
Even after losing in the state championship game, a player from Pisgah High discussed the occasion with her coach, who also happens to be her father.
“The state tournament should never go back [to Montgomery], and I know he agrees with me,” she said, pointing right at me.
I had many more interactions just like that at the high school state softball tournament in late May. It was a banner week for the sport’s progress in this state, with the tournament being played at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, one of the premier complexes in the state.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association made the decision to move the state tournament from Lagoon Park in Montgomery, where it had been held every year since its inception in 1986.
Lagoon Park was built in the 1970s and served as a suitable home for the state tournament for many years. But the truth of the matter is hardly any upgrades have been made to the facility, and softball’s explosion in popularity in recent years led to a need for a more robust championship experience at the high school level.
Anyone that knows me knows I strongly agreed with the move to Choccolocco Park. Not only is it a top-notch facility to begin with, but one of its defining features is a Signature Field stadium designed specifically for softball. Each of the championship games played on that field felt like a big-time game, because it was.
“This venue, this place, is just incredible,” Hewitt-Trussville head coach Taylor Burt said after leading her Huskies to the Class 7A championship on that Signature Field.
Burt’s Huskies won the 2019 title in Montgomery and took home another blue map this spring. She definitely noticed the energy in the stadium as Hewitt rallied to win the decisive game for the title.
“Our fans and that atmosphere, you can’t beat that,” she said. “To understand how big that game is and to do it here at such a nice facility, you can’t put it into words.”
In recent years, talk (and tweets) at the state tournament revolved around negative things such as temporary fencing and a lack of atmosphere for the championship games.
This year, aside from commendation of the facility, the conversation centered around the quality of softball being played and the buzz in the stadium at the championship games. That’s how it should always be.
“It was a desire to provide our member school players, coaches and fans a championship environment, a lifetime experience and something they’ve never had before in Alabama for high school softball,” said Kim Vickers, AHSAA Associate Executive Director and director of softball.
It’s safe to say they pulled that off.
You have to look no further than the Women’s College World Series to see that softball is booming. The USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium recently added an upper deck to increase the seating capacity to 13,000 and the popularity of the college postseason tournament is at an all-time high.
The AHSAA recognized that as well and made a big move for the sport here in Alabama. Sure, there are still improvements to be made. But this spring was a big step in the right direction.
Kyle Parmley is the sports editor at Starnes Media, which produces monthly newspapers such as 280 Living, Village Living, Homewood Star, Hoover Sun, Vestavia Voice, Cahaba Sun and Iron City Ink.