David Trampe
Contributing Writer
Kopplin Field is getting a new look.
Kopplin Field has served as the baseball field since 1947 and has always been a dirt and grass field. Since 2021 improvements have slowly been made: new netting, dugout systems, and now a new turf field, which will be ready for the 2024 spring season.
Last year, the Statesmen finished with a 13-17 record, but with a new turf field, members of the team have high hopes.
Senior baseball player Joe Callas is very excited. Callas said, “I’m excited for the new turf, it should be really cool considering the shape the field was in before and allow much cleaner play and give us extra energy because it’s new.”
With surrounding schools having turf, Kopplin Field very quickly was becoming outdated. A new field should boost performance or as senior Joe Callas said, “ More bombs will be hit.” Turf fields significantly reduce ground impact, allowing players to perform with greater confidence.
Senior Jackson Torbit said, “I feel pretty confident about the season. The team looks good, and we are very excited to be playing on our new field. I would say the biggest advantage is that with turf you get true hops off a ground ball. Sometimes fielding off dirt and grass can lead to a crazy hop and then an error which puts a runner on without the batter even doing anything.”
The players have high expectations this year. Torbit said, “Last year we struggled to produce runs, so this year I think it will be very different.” Torbit thinks an improvement in pitching and scoring run abilities will be the biggest factor.
Kopplin Field was renamed from Plymouth after Corp. Richard Kopplin Jr. of the class of 1917. A WWI veteran who was one of 50 soldiers killed in July of 1918 defending the town of Linthal in the Alsace region. Kopplin was the high school’s first WWI soldier killed in action.
The turf is planned to be finished by April 1, 2024. The turf has a total cost of $2,225,000, coming from Prop S. Other improvements such as new netting, and dugout systems cost $185,000.
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