To mark the opening of the newly renovated Academy Fields, the Town of Stratford held a ribbon cutting ceremony and celebratory walk-a-thon on March 30th. The aged fields underwent a complete renovation in the last six months to meet the extensive recreational needs of the various user groups. The Town retained BSC in the fall of 2011 to assess the recreational complex, and conduct planning and final design of the new facilities. BSC provided landscape architecture, civil engineering and construction administration services throughout the site planning and design process.
The renovation of Academy Fields included the regrading and repositioning of the diamonds themselves, a regraded and expanded outfield area that can be now used for multi-sport activities such as football, lacrosse, and soccer and a state-of-the-art irrigation system, and a six-foot wide asphalt walking track that winds its way around the perimeter of the site and includes park benches, tree plantings as well as the installation of new backstops, fencing, bleachers, player benches, bases, and infields for each of the four baseball/softball diamonds. Academy Fields is among the sites that wll host the Amateur Softball Association of America(ASA) 10U and 12U Girls’ Eastern Regional Softball Tournament this August.
Immediately following the ribbon cutting ceremony, the Stratford Academy Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) held a PTSA Bobcat Walk-a-Thon to celebrate the project’s completion in which students solicited pledges from corporate sponsors in the area. All of the funds raised through the Walk-a-thon will go directly to fund programs and activities offered to the children of Stratford Academy through the PTSA.
The completion of the fields brings to a close the Town’s goal of bringing Stratford’s South End athletic fields and facilities up to par with those of other neighborhoods around Stratford.