BOONEVILLE, Miss. - Four years of planning, research and construction has finally paid off for the Northeast Mississippi Community College baseball and softball programs with the opening of the "Field of Dreams."
Northeast held an official dedication ceremony for the complex on Saturday, February 1. The brand-new, multi-million dollar facility will serve as the first on-campus home for the baseball and softball teams in school history.
Both baseball and softball utilized a long-standing partnership with Booneville City Park to play their home games at Harold T. White Field and David Carnell Memorial Field, respectively.
"Somebody asked me 'What do you want to do?' when I became president," said Northeast president Dr. Ricky Ford. "I immediately said I want us to have a baseball (and softball) field. We have never owned a baseball or softball field that we can call our own.
"Now we can say we have our own and it is the best in the country without a doubt. We're looking forward to our softball and baseball teams performing and winning."
More than 500 people flocked to the City of Hospitality for this historic event, which included free hats, t-shirts and concession stand food compliments of the Northeast Development Foundation.
Athletic director Kent Farris, chairman of the Northeast board of trustees Jack Ramsey and Patrick Eaton, who is the executive director of the development foundation, joined Ford in speaking at the ribbon cutting.
"This project started out as the "Field of Dreams," but today it is Northeast's field of reality," said Farris. "God has been so good to us. We've got numerous players, managers, student trainers and statisticians that have all represented Northeast in a first class manner over the years. Because of the way that they represented Northeast, this dream that you see today was made possible."
"This "Field of Dreams" has been a dream for many years," Ramsey said. "I've had the privilege of being on this board for 35 years and I would say for at least 35 years we've wanted baseball and softball fields. Finally this dream has come true."
"As our "Field of Dreams" capital gifts campaign slogan stated, 'If you build it, they will come,'" said Eaton. "By the blessings of the Lord, we were able to build this state-of-the-art facility."
Both squads competed in intrasquad scrimmages that lasted approximately 45 minutes as well. Eli Eakes had the highlight of the day for baseball with a three-run home run in the third inning of its head-to-head matchup.
The softball version of the Tigers did not hit any homers, but Anna Beth Lucius, Alexis McGreger, Anna Claire Stahl and Katelin Senter all had extra base hits during their controlled scrimmage.
A full afternoon of activities wrapped up with a special first pitch mingle presentation featuring former University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) standout and assistant coach Keith Kessinger.
Kessinger bragged about the entire complex, which includes an indoor hitting and pitching building, fieldhouse complete with locker rooms for both teams and two-story pressbox, during his keynote address.
"I don't know if you can say enough about this facility," Kessinger said. "I'd been fortunate enough to come over a few times and see it under construction. But to see the finished product is really special.
"This is going to be such a huge deal for the baseball and softball programs to help them get kids on campus. You don't have to worry as much about the weather with the turf field, which will help continue player development."
Northeast softball will host the first games in the new stadium on Saturday, February 8 against Jackson State (Tenn.) Community College while the baseball team welcomes both Calhoun (Ala.) Community College and Kaskaskia (Ill.) College for its inaugural contests on Friday, February 14.