Elder stadium is a jewel worthy of storied history
Elder baseball coach Mark Thompson won't soon forget the fall evenings he spent driving the John Deere tractor from Elder to Dunham Recreation Complex to renovate Elder's baseball field.
Thompson would spend two weeks each fall renovating Elder's field at Dunham armed with the tractor, a shovel and a rake.
"I would work until dark and drive the tractor back because I didn't have any other way to transport it," Thompson said.
On the drive back to Elder, Thompson said he would get a little company. "The neighbor kids would start pelting me with rocks, so I would have to wear catcher's gear driving back to Elder each night for those two weeks."
In his 25th year as Panthers coach, the days of driving the old tractor to renovate the team's home field will officially come to a close with the unveiling of the Jack Adam Baseball Stadium.
"I think back to the things that we did and had to do to get ready for a season and now we have this," Thompson said. "Twenty five years apart and look what we have now."
An official opening ceremony will be held Saturday, which marks the completion of the decade-long Panther Athletic Complex project – a 65-acre sports complex located at 1915 Quebec Road in the heart of Price Hill. The project required the movement of 300,000 cubic feet of dirt – nearly enough to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"This is going to be one of those places that people will want to come play in," said Elder athletic director Dave Dabbelt. "You don't see too many high school stadiums like this." The stadium features a brick façade similar to Wright State University's Nischwitz Stadium, three seating sections, a press box and bathrooms.
The $500,000 baseball stadium project was funded entirely through donations. Elder alum Jack Adam offered a gift-and-match deal with the school. "He looked at the different kinds of stadiums and said he really liked the brick look," Dabbelt said. "He put out a challenge; he would cover half the cost if we could raise the other half."
A prior donation of $100,000 was used toward their half of the project and the remaining $125,000 was received through family and alumni donations.
"Going out to the Elder family and friends was a must in raising funds. We were amazed at the show of support that we did receive," said admissions and marketing director JP Owens.
In all, the complex cost around $4 million. "I thought they were crazy," Dabbelt said. "I thought there was no way this was going to work. It wasn't just a flat piece of land. It took some imagination and foresight to see what it could be."
While the baseball stadium may be the apple of the PAC's eye, the complex houses competition and practice facilities for soccer, golf, tennis and track and field. "The whole complex makes a statement," added Dabbelt. "We had our first varsity baseball game on Monday, but at the same point we had a tennis match going, we had track practice. Seton (track) came in and practiced, a large group from grade schools came rolling in. It's occupied every day."
The completion of the stadium marks the first time in Thompson's career that Elder has had its own baseball field. The team played at Dunham Recreation Complex on Guerley Road before moving to Hille Field, requiring a trip up I-75 North.
"The neatest thing about this stadium is the character," Thompson said. "You see the towers like you see at Elder High School. You see the arch when you walk into the stadium, the purple seats; there's no other stadium anywhere like this."
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, Elder baseball is the winningest team in Ohio baseball history.
A 5-2 win at La Salle on April 8 gave Elder its 1,400th win, putting it third nationally in wins – behind only Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett in Tennessee and Fresno in California. Elder has hung 12 baseball state championship banners, the most in Ohio, and has won at least one state title in every decade going back to the 1940s.
The festivities on Saturday will begin with a plaque unveiling shortly before 11 a.m. The Elder Vocal Ensemble will sing the National Anthem and the Elder Color Guard will perform. Adam will throw out the first pitch to begin the doubleheader against Turpin, thus marking the beginning of a new baseball era for Elder.
"It's what Elder deserves," Thompson said.
"It's about the legacy that Elder has created over the decades."