Newbury Softball Gets a New Field

This year the Newbury College softball team will have a new home on the campus of Hellenic College.

The lack of available land in the Brookline area meant the softball team has never had a field to call their own before this point. In past years, the team used Pine Manor College, Regis College, Wentworth Institute of Technology and the New England Baseball Complex for home fields. In some cases, they traveled to their opponents’ schools to play home games.

In September, Newbury College president, Joseph Chillo, announced the changes for Newbury’s athletic facilities at Hellenic College. He said the plans include a, “multi-use turf athletic field to accommodate all rectangular sport teams and softball.” However, the turf will not be installed until after the 2018-2019 academic year. For now, the softball team will be playing on a dirt infield and grass outfield. Newbury also has an athletic consortium with Hellenic, which allows students from Hellenic to play on the Newbury athletic teams.

“I’m excited for the new field,” said junior catcher Noelle Sass, “it gives fans the opportunity to come watch our games, which could be challenging before.” Hellenic College is only a mile away from Newbury, and the school often runs “fan vans” to transport students to and from sporting events held there. Giving fans the ability to attend their games is important to the softball team. “It was frustrating when we hosted the NECC championship tournament last year and other schools were able to bring out more fans than we did,” former Rookie of the Year Arianna Gooden said.

Work began on the construction of the field last week and is supposed to be completed by the time the team returns from their spring training trip to Fort Myers on March 18. There is plenty of work to be done on the field and Sass said she was nervous it would be done in time. “There’s a lot that has to be completed to ensure that the field is playable, and we obviously have a time constraint with the beginning of the season coming up.” The field will include dugouts, a press box, and access to locker rooms.

The construction of a home field comes after batting cages were installed inside the gymnasium at Hellenic so that the Nighthawk softball team would be able to have an indoor practice area as well. “The addition of these facilities means a lot to us and the future of the softball program,” said Gooden.

Photo by Dylan Foran