Valparaiso Parks has made an exciting announcement concerning the future of Valpo's Tower Park baseball field.
Tower Park's Baseball field, thanks to a donation from the Samardzija family and Valpo Parks Department, will undergo renovations to update the field with a variety of upgrades culminating in its reinvention under the name of Samardzija Field.
"This is part of our continuing efforts to preserve our park system but also preserve the culture and legacy of our community," said Valpo Parks Department Director John Siebert. "This is the latest example of our extraordinary community culture of leaders giving back."
Tower Park features playground equipment made entirely from recycled materials as well as tennis courts, basketball backboards, and their youth baseball field. The additions to the baseball field will include artificial turf, brick dugouts with distinctive, ventilated roofs, a unique spectator plaza and state of the art field fencing and scoreboard amenities to simulate the feel of a major league baseball stadium. Improved drainage, landscaping and hard surface pathways to additional parking will also be part of the planned improvements to ensure that there are more space and parking for families to take advantage of.
"We're working with the Valparaiso Utilities Department to let us create this vision of having more space and more accessibility for the people in this community to come and enjoy," said Siebert.
Along with Parks Department City of Valpo members, Sam Samardzija and his family were present to speak about how the improvement to Tower Park's current baseball field will bring new opportunities to the youth of Valparaiso.
"Sports were a big part of our lives and when we were younger we have a lot of memories of coming here, playing pick-up basketball games and of course playing baseball," says Samardzija. "From ages five to twelve is an important time in a child's life when it comes to playing and enjoying sports and we hope that through this upgrade, new generations can find the same enjoyment."
Samardzija Field also plans on hosting softball games as well as little league baseball games. Construction on Samardzija Field will begin in September 2016 and be completed in summer 2017
"We could not accomplish this level of quality without the vision and generosity of our public-private partnerships. It has been my privilege to work on this project directly with Sam Samardzija and we are so grateful to Jeff and the whole Samardzija family for their desire to pay forward their love of sports to the next generation," says Siebert.
For more information on Valpo Parks, please visit their website and stay up to date with their latest updates on Facebook and Twitter.
