By Shannon J. Allen/Sand Mountain Reporter
Sept. 18 was a great day for the Sardis High School baseball program, as head coach Zach Gilliland accepted a $6,000 grant check from the Coosa Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council to be applied toward the new dugouts at the Lions’ field.
Members of the Etowah County legislative delegation, the Etowah County Commission and officials from the Etowah County Soil and Water Conservation District also took part in the presentation.
The new and safer dugouts replaced dugouts that were angled toward home plate, exposing them to foul balls. The old dugouts were also cramped with short ceilings.
“[Jennifer] Childers came to me about some money we might have and we said what can we do to improve the facility, and the first thing we thought about was dugouts,” Gilliland said.
Childers’ son Kolby is a Sardis player. She works for Etowah County Soil and Water and with the Resource Conservation and Development Council.
“We got approval around Christmas to tear them down and put new ones up,” Gilliland said. “That gave us two months to get everything done, fighting the weather and all that, before baseball season started.
“Through the RCD we got that grant. We funded it ourselves and they reimbursed us for it. We’re close to having them like we need them. We used them this year.”
Sardis Diamond Club president David Dewberry also took part in the presentation.
“When we can get grant money to help us out and do stuff like that it’s great, and we greatly appreciate it.”
According to Dewberry, the Diamond Club hopes to install heaters in the dugouts. Members of the Diamond Club helped construct the new dugouts.
“When we poured the concrete it was real cold, and we put tents over it,” Dewberry said. “We had shifts where we would come up here and keep fuel in the heaters and keep them going. We had people that we knew, that we used to work with, lay block and give us a good deal on our block, and people donated lumber to us. It just went super good.”