The Rockville Centre community deserves a proper 90' baseball facility as well as upgraded softball fields. I have started this petition to ask for your support.  My sons participated in RVC Little League, Williamsport tournament and as student athletes for South Side Middle School and High School.  Those experiences were and are amazing, RVC loves baseball!  Unfortunately the baseball facilities do not reflect that OR support a strong baseball program with eager, talented and hardworking players.  As a lifelong resident and parent, this saddens me when I know the baseball/softball facilities in RVC should be on par with our neighboring towns and villages.  

Our South Side teams use Barasch field at the Mill River Complex, which due to draining issues has caused home games to be postponed or relocated.   Imagine a Varsity team, 2021 County Champions, who cannot rely on their home field being available for games.  The facility needs serious upgrades.  Listed below are the most pressing issues.

There are no batting cages.
There is no scoreboard.  
There is no permanent outfield fencing, the result of that is SSHS can never be a home run leader in the league.   Local parents raised money for a portable fence in 2019, the players must put it up and take it down for every practice and home game.  That is not an acceptable solution.  
Opposing players have commented on the hard as a rock infield and downward slope in the outfield.  

Our best field village field is Hickey, which is NOT turfed, and at only 60’ it cannot be used for games with players ages 12 and up.  For our younger players it lacks proper batting cages and for the fans there is no concession stand, which would provide a way to raise funds for our Little League or Booster club.   In 2021, all three age brackets (10U, 11U, 12U) of the RVC Little League Williamsport teams won their districts….those are a lot of baseball players who will grow and age into South Side athletics, let’s get our fields up to par! Softball included. 

In 2019, promises were made to continue discussions regarding these issues and it was acknowledged that planning needs to be done for this undertaking so its done right, done well and will benefit the community for generations.  The time is right to start it up again for our community.

The link below provides a list of almost every town in NASSAU that has 90' fields that have turf fields, proper pitching mounds,  scoreboards, announcement equipment , batting cages, a true home run fence and a concession stand to help off set, raise money, and make it a more enjoyable facility!  

http://www.manhassetbaseball.com/App/EnumFacilities/List/?teamid=&org=manhassetbaseball

The following the following town/villages have 90' baseball facilities that provide players and families with proper playing conditions. 

Just to name a few surrounding town fields - Baldwin Park , (Lynbrook) Gries Park, Oceanside Park,   Malverne ( HS and Whelan Field) , Massapequa  (Johns Burns Park) , East Meadow ( EM Baseball Complex on Merrick  Ave),  Garden City (Cherry Valley Ave. Baseball complex and several more) , Farmingdale (Conklin Street complex), Plainview (Brian Moore Complex), Wantagh (Duck Pond Road and more) , Floral Park (Floral Park Community Center), Seaford (Seamons Neck Rd Facility) these and many many more town/ villages offer 90’ fields with scoreboards, batting cages, turf (infield at least), concession stands, lights, etc. 

I believe our beautiful, prestigious village deserves to have comparable facilities to the towns and villages around us. I think we can do better.   Knowing all the baseball programs that this village has, there should be at least ONE appropriate 90' turf baseball field with a scoreboard, announcement equipment, batting cages, a homerun fence, dugouts, concession stand like surrounding towns. The REC camp, the Sandlot Summer Camp, RVC Little League, Williamsport and the SSHS Championship Varsity team ( who must be giving some small payment for use of the field) all deserve a field comparable to ALL our surrounding towns. Additionally our softball fields need to be updated as well. 

Please sign and share this petition. Thank you for your support, no monetary contributions are needed at this time.