Lake facilities repaired

MILLBURY – Lake’s spring sports teams will play at home this season.
The Flyers’ baseball, softball, and track and field facilities have been repaired after being damaged by
last June’s tornado which killed seven and destroyed the high school.
Athletics director Dave Shaffer said all of Lake’s outdoor facilities have been repaired with the
exception of a middle school football practice field.
The outdoor facilities still are without locker rooms, but those eventually will be built with the help
of last week’s $20,000 donation from the Cleveland Browns and the NFL.
The baseball field was resodded last fall after the top 4-6 inches of the playing surface was scraped off
to make sure all of the debris was removed. A new surface for the warning track also was installed.
The debris resulted in approximately 30 tears to the track. The fencing was damaged and repaired, while
some shingles on the track building had to be replaced.
Shaffer said the softball field suffered only "very minor damage," since it was the farthest
facility from the tornado. He said the high winds stripped off "just the top" of the crushed
stone playing surface.
The locker rooms for the spring teams will continue to be the modular trailer units provided free of
charge by Owens Community College. The Flyer teams have been using them since last fall.
Lake’s boys and girls basketball teams are playing their home games at Owens, while the wrestling team’s
home matches are at Walbridge Elementary.
Shaffer said the new locker rooms would be attached to the building at the south end of the football
field. The building is currently being used as a cafeteria, but will become an athletic building when
the new high school opens for the 2012-13 academic year. The building will include locker rooms, a
concession stand, a wrestling room and public restrooms.
"We’d like to say we’ll have the new locker rooms for the next football season," Shaffer said.
"But right now, we’re early in our bid packages and our major focus right now is to rebuild the
high school. Obviously, the locker rooms are very important and they are necessary. But our biggest
attention is rebuilding our high school and within that process we hope to build those locker
rooms."
The natural grass football field was replaced with artificial turf in time for last season, and the press
box on the visitors side was replaced the week after the regular season ended. The field was damaged by
debris.
The main football practice field was reseeded last fall, and repairs have been made to the irrigation
system.
"Whether or not the field will be ready for the start of practice in August remains to be
seen," Shaffer said. "We just need to let Mother Nature take her course."
Last fall, the Flyers practiced on a grass area at the high school.
Shaffer said the middle school football practice field "remains a work in progress and hopefully
over time will put it back into use in the next couple of years."
In addition to the donation, the Browns hosted Lake’s football team for a preseason game last fall and
the team was recognized on the field before the game. Lake’s players also had a change to meet the
Browns’ players..
Shaffer said the Browns have remained in close contact with Lake school board member Eric Hirzel since
the tornado.
"The Browns have been great from the beginning," Shaffer said, adding the Browns helped buy
equipment for the Flyers last fall. "They’re been right here for us all along. After they got the
equipment for the kids, they still wanted to do more for us. Their help has been outstanding and is
greatly appreciated."