Portland Public Schools (PPS) needs to take immediate action to fix the issues with the softball/baseball field at Leodis V McDaniel High School. Our school was part of a multi-million dollar remodel a few yeas ago and our softball and baseball teams still have yet to be able to use the field for home games due to very fixable issues.

The field "lacks of protective padded wall or cyclone fence in front of a short cement retaining wall," Portland Interscholastic League assistant athletics director Jeff Erdman wrote in a May 23, 2022 email to KGW.  "Unfortunately, the new netting does not allow baseballs to bounce off the netting and remain in play, thus effectively shortening the length of the field and making it unusable for league games," explained an unsigned letter from the district titled "McDaniel Baseball field message April 2023."

The inability to use our brand new field for home ages is not only frustrating for players but also families and other folks hoping to attend games to support. Students are being pulled from seat hours in class to travel to their home games, missing instructional time that they would otherwise be able to take part in if they were able to utilize a home field. Traveling for home games also makes it harder for families and other students to attend games to support. This lack of attention to fixing the issue has deprived our community of the opportunity to support their local team.

In a June 9, 2022, email to KGW, the Portland Public Schools media relations team wrote that "… the field will be ready for use for league games next season." It wasn't.

We urge PPS to prioritize fixing these issues by immediately hiring professionals who can provide quality repairs to both the fence and netting. Our students deserve a safe and playable softball and baseball field that they can be proud of.

Source: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/two-years-later-school-baseball-softball-teams-still-cant-play-field/283-397b9a4b-b9f0-44ab-8f4f-96ab670d2daa