For the 2024-2025 spring baseball and softball seasons, the Somerset Hills Board of Education has approved improvements to be made to Bernards High School’s lower fields. This approval comes after years of the fields constantly being oversaturated from weather, having holes and uneven spots, and poorly draining. This approval also aligns with the Board of Education’s goals for students to use the fields for PE classes.
Coach Falzarano, head coach of the baseball team for the past twenty-two years has had his fair share of experiences on the fields. He found that there were “areas of clumpy weeds, areas of no grass, and areas of holes” and “it was a dangerous playing surface at times.” Now the future is looking bright for the baseball and softball teams.
T & M, the Board’s Engineering firm was approved for professional engineering service at the April 2024 meeting. The engineers took “core” soil samples to find the soil underneath the grass. Eight inches underneath the grass is an impermeable clay layer that rainwater cannot penetrate. Over time, the constant rain has left the fields being saturated, water “ponding”, and traveling throughout the fields towards the first and third base lines. The engineers recommended digging trenches and installing a PVC drainage system, which would collect rainwater from the facility and reroute water toward Route 202. However, the board was not able to hire a contractor for this project, so this is at a standstill.
In October 2024, at the Board meeting, the Board of Education contracted with SportCare, a NJ-based turf management contractor company, to move forward with goals towards improving the playing surface for both teams. Details were aligned for both fields from November through December as the plan is to: “Aerate, seed, and top dress lower grass baseball/softball combo field. 190,000 square feet, aerate field with deep tine solid core tines, power seed the entire turf with a sports blend (tall fescue/bluegrass) seed mix, apply starter fertilizer to promote germination of seed, top dress outfield with approx. 125 tons of 622 athletic top dress mix.” These renovations are well underway.
Marley Beers ‘25 who plays left field for BHS softball is “excited for the fields to be fixed because it really impacted the flow of their game.” She goes on to bring up when it rained, “We would have to cancel our games or move it to the Claremont Fields and it threw off our rhythm.” Now, many players are using this as hope for a brighter future.
Matty Stefani ‘25, a second baseman for the BHS baseball team, has played baseball on the fields for the past three years and is ready to see these changes for this upcoming season. The problems of drainage do not just affect the play of the game, it also contributes to injury concerns as Stefani points out “a player last year stepped into a divet in the outfield which caused him to tear his ACL.” With the fields being revitalized, comes a new hope these changes will “be partially done before the season starts” and softball and baseball players across the community will enjoy better games.
