The newly renovated baseball field at San Manuel High School was officially dedicated at the first game of the season. Photo by Nathaniel Lopez
If you passed by the San Manuel High School baseball field during the past few months, you might have noticed that it was under construction. On Saturday, Feb. 21, the school held the first game on the brand new field. Coming to play against the Miners was the Miami Vandals. Before the game started, a ceremonial ‘first pitch’ was thrown out by Mike Sloan.
“The opening of the new baseball field for San Manuel High School was a proud moment for our district and its student athletes. Constable Mike Sloan has served as teacher and baseball coach in our district for many years, so we were honored that he was able to come and throw the first pitch with one of his former student athletes, John Ruiz,” commented Principal/Superintendent Julie Dale-Scott.
It was a good day for the Miners who were able to claim the win over Miami.
“There are many advantages to continuing sports in our public schools both for the physical health and wellness as well as the mental health that physical activity offers our students. Offering interscholastic sports is however a costly endeavor. We still have not recovered from the lack of fundraising that COVID brought on for our district’s athletic budget. We try to keep the cost down for our families in an area of high free and reduced lunches but find it difficult to balance everything in the budget while still trying to provide opportunities for all our students and maintain old buildings. There are a lot of things that fall apart in a school built in the 1950s and we must maintain these buildings, deciding each year where we are going to focus our funds,” Dale-Scott continued. “The baseball field is only one area that needed attention, and we have many more. Initially, the baseball field became more of a focus not only for the state it was in, but because we had some businesses who said they would donate to the cause but never followed through on their donation. We were able to reallocate funds in our budget to accommodate that loss but that means that other areas will now need to be placed on the back burner. Despite all the needs of the district, we receive many compliments about our district from outside the community and other districts, we have been identified as A and B schools through the state, we have great students, and a beautiful scene of the Galiuro mountains. We are very proud to be San Manuel Miners and happy that we can give these student athletes a place to play that they can be proud of.”
You can come watch the Miners in action on the brand new field during their next home game, on March 25, when they host the Superior Panthers.
Constable Mike Sloan throws out the ceremonial first pitch on the new baseball field at San Manuel High School. Photo by Nathaniel Lopez