Bare dirt where grass should be in the outfield, fences falling over and holes burnt in dugout benches hardly make the HighPoint High School baseball diamond a field of dreams, according to some members of the school’s baseball booster club.
“There just hasn’t been anything that’s been done in four years,” said Tracy Hannivan, of College Park, whose son, Shane Ittenbach, has played baseball at High Point all four years. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
But a spokesman for Prince George’s County Public Schools said High Point officials and coaches are satisfied with the condition of the playing fields.
“The school doesn’t feel that there’s a big concern,” said public schools spokesman John White.
If something at the fields did present a problem, White said, the principal would submit a work order to the school’s maintenance department, which would then work to resolve the issue.
“We like to see every school have terrific facilities to play on,” White said.
But Hannivan said the only work she’s seen at the field since her son started playing for the High Point team four years ago has been dragging of the dirt and laying down lime to mark lines on the field.
“What it looks like for baseball in the county is that it’s just an afterthought,” Hannivan said.
For 17-year-old Shane Ittenbach, the biggest difference at the field has been playing ground balls gone goofy because of a lumpy infield.
Even though the senior will graduate soon, Ittenbach said he has one wish for the field after his departure: “Level out the infield so that the ball doesn’t take all of those crazy hops that it does. It’ll just jump up and hit you in the arm. It’ll just fly over your shoulder.”
