A look inside the current clubhouse and locker room at Hobart-Detter Field.
A broken window and peeling paint are prominent at the current clubhouse and locker room at Hobart-Detter Field.
A wind gust blew off a set of lights near right field at Hobart-Detter Field, damaging a bathroom.
The light pole that lost the lights during a wind storm.
A look at the current clubhouse being built beyond the left-field wall.

By Brenna Eller
Opinion Page Editor

The Hutchinson Community College baseball team is expecting a new clubhouse soon. It has been long overdue for this installment at Hobart-Detter Field.

The new amenities featured in the clubhouse, which will be located about 50 feet behind the left-field fence, include – a new maintenance facility for half of the building, and the other half will be used as a locker room, laundry area, bathroom, coaches’ office and umpire locker room.

The clubhouse will also be used by the Hutchinson Monarchs, a summer collegiate wood-bat baseball team.

“The city is funding the building,” said HutchCC baseball coach Ryan Schmidt. “We are extremely excited about the building.”

Schmidt also said that the new building will help compete against others in the Blue Dragons’ conference – the Jayhawk West – that have modern clubhouses and enhance help in recruiting.

“We can’t thank the City of Hutchinson enough for seeing this project through and giving our players a great space to call home,” Schmidt said.

The old clubhouse with its busted windows and chipped paint looks just as bad on the inside as it does on the outside. In addition to chipped paint and broken windows is a foul odor wafting inside the clubhouse.

The team is looking forward to having a location for private meetings and more room for equipment.

HutchCC freshman, Dylan Nedved said, “I’m so excited for it, we’re going to hit a lot of clubhouse jacks. We’re going to put some holes in that roof.”

Nedved said the phrase, “clubhouse jacks” is an inside joke and another way of saying hitting home runs that hit the roof of the clubhouse.

Another freshman, Cameron Crandall, shared his excitement for the new clubhouse.

“I think everyone will realize how much space we have now instead of being crowded in our old one,” Crandall said.

Along with the new clubhouse being built, new light fixtures are expected to be put on the field within a year. Damage from the wind April 18 caused one set of lights to fall on the first-base-side restroom building at the baseball field. Only about one-third of the roof was damaged.

 

 

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