Ribbon cut on Champions Field; ground broken for next phase at Gadsden Sports Park

A crown jewel of the fledgling Gadsden Sports Park was broken in by the people it was constructed for, a few minutes after ground was broken for the park’s next phase.

City officials and community leaders gathered Monday at the facility behind Gadsden State Community College’s Wallace Drive Campus for the ribbon-cutting for the Champions Field, a place where special needs children of all ages can compete and play.

It consists of a synthetic turf field suitable for sports like soccer and softball — it was filled following the ceremony with kids swatting balls off a tee while others joyously chased them — and an adjoining playground also tailored for those with special needs. The restrooms also are special needs accessible and include adult-size changing tables.

“This is something great to have in our community,” Mayor Craig Ford said. “This is a big deal — words can’t explain how big a deal it is.”

The Champions Field is the main component of Phase 3 of the park, a multimillion-dollar collaboration between the City of Gadsden and Gadsden State that was set in motion by the previous City Council during then-Mayor Sherman Guyton’s administration.

Current council President Kent Back, who was on that council, said the idea originated in conversations with Guyton and Frankie Davis, the city’s former director of governmental affairs and economic development.

“Three or four years ago, we started to work on this wonderful (park) and it kind of dawned on me that we were not being all-inclusive,” Back recalled. “So I spoke with them and said we needed a Champions Field, and they wholeheartedly agreed.

“We wanted to be all-inclusive, so you don’t have to travel to other counties for your children and adult children to have the type of facility you deserve. It’s a great way to spend taxpayers’ money here in Gadsden and support all our citizens.”

Back said it will be wonderful in years to come to see “the joy and excitement” on the facilities that were designed “to be all-inclusive of all walks of life,” adding, “Please come and enjoy your playground, please come and enjoy your park.”

Sharon Maness, assistant superintendent of Gadsden City Schools, called it “a tremendous opportunity for all our students with disabilities.”

She said there’s always been a push from the community for such opportunities, “and the City of Gadsden and Gadsden State have stepped up to the challenge and provided these lovely opportunities in these fields for our kids to take part in extracurricular activities that at times they’ve been excluded from.”

Phase 3 also includes four pickleball courts and four more are coming in Phase 4, along with two and potentially three regulation 225-foot girls’ softball fields with synthetic turf where, as Ford noted, “It can be raining cats and dogs for an hour, and then (when it stops) you’re playing in five minutes.”

Additional soccer fields are planned and there also are preliminary plans for improvements at Dub Parker Park on the Coosa River, including a renovation of the boat launch and the addition of beach volleyball.

“They always make fun of me because I love cutting ribbons and breaking ground,” Ford said. “But if we’re cutting ribbons and breaking ground, hopefully we’re being good stewards of your tax dollars.”

The mayor noted that he grew up three blocks from the park and used to “cut through the woods” to get to what more than 40 years ago was one of Alabama’s first four-plex softball facilities.

“This is a quality of life issue,” Ford said. “The things that this park and this partnership with Gadsden State will offer are things you can’t imagine for years to come.

“It’s a big deal to be able to renovate this area and have these fields,” he said. “Tonight you’ll see this place flooded with vehicles and little kids running around playing ball; an adult softball league going on that I’m playing in; and soccer practice going on. It’s just amazing what this brings to the community.

“This is the people’s park,” he said, “and Gadsden State’s park, and we’re just trying to take good care of your tax dollars and enhance it.”

GSCC President Kathy Murphy said it’s been “just amazing” to see how the project has transformed and developed from the “big mound of dirt” she encountered after moving to Gadsden a little more than three years ago.

She said the school has had “a terrific working relationshi[p” with the city and looks forward to that continuing.

GSCC recently broke ground for its own baseball and softball fields in the area and Murphy noted that people will be driving through the school’s campus to get to those fields and the Gadsden Sports Complex.

“It makes us want to work on our campus more,” she said, “and work on a good entrance into the facility.”

Back said, “The mayor, the council and Dr. Murphy have all formed a really tight friendship and partnership that will benefit all of the community and all of the taxpayers of Gadsden and Etowah County.”

Ford stressed that this was the previous administration and council’s “vision and project,” and that they provided the funding to make it happen after it was announced in 2019. His administration is simply finishing what they started.

Bob Smith Construction built Phase 3 and has the contract for Phase 4. The EE Group handled electrical engineering and CDG Engineers the civil consulting for both phases. Bart Rye of 5R Design was the architect on the Champions Field. The city’s engineering department handled inspections, invoicing and payments.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: All-inclusive Champions Field opens for kids at Gadsden Sports Park