Recap: Community Grounds Crew’s ’4 in 24′

Beginning at 6 AM on Friday, April 13, the Cambridge Valley Athletic Association, South Colonie Youth Baseball, Coxsackie Little League and Waterford Little League all received much needed improvements to their playing fields.

Each ball field had new sod placed on their infield, while also seeing their pitcher’s mound and homeplate areas re-built, all in less than 24-hours.

The ’4 in 24′ Youth Field Renovation Project was the kick-off to a season long campaign known as the Community Grounds Crew Program. Partnering with BlueShield of Northeastern New York, the ValleyCats Community Grounds Crew will assist numerous other youth leagues in the Capital Region with field maintenance projects from June through September.

This year, we divided up into four different groups, one at each field beginning at 6 AM. The last field to be completed was Coxsackie, at around 8 PM. A total of 14 hours! That’s a new record, compared to last year’s 21 hours.

Special thanks goes out to Stadium Operations Manager Keith Sweeney and Account Executive Kyle Wheeler for coordinating the project, and to Head Groundskeeper John Hudson for leading the efforts of rebuilding the mound and home plate areas.

The amount of support we received from the volunteers at each location was tremendous! It was a true team effort to complete each field renovation! The ’4 in 24′ was also supported by Pioneer Bank and could not have been completed without the aforementioned help.

Below are the before & after photos from each ball field: