Pa. Baseball Team Spends Spring Break at Womble Park 3/20/08

The Fairview High Tigers practiced alone Wednesday afternoon in Holly Springs' Womble Park. If they'd been scrimmaging against another squad, the Tigers almost certainly would have been the “away” team.

Wednesday's 70-degree temperatures were just what the Erie, Pa.-area high school team needed for a productive afternoon of baseball practice.

Six hundred miles north in Fairview, the weather was lousy.

“It's 40 degrees and foggy and raining,” head coach Keith Nies said, relaying the hometown weather report. “It's not nice up there today.”

Planning for the Pennsylvania squad's spring break trip to Holly Springs began last fall. Several teams in the vicinity of Erie had traveled somewhere south previously to practice outdoors.

Joe Spinelli, Fairview 's jayvee coach, had a contact in Holly Springs. Ed Wantz, who had served as Fairview 's athletic trainer and now teaches at Holly Ridge Middle School, suggested Womble Park. The Womble Park fields are open in early afternoon at this time, so the Parks & Recreation staff was glad to accommodate.

“We're just happy to have them down here,” Johnny Dickinson, Holly Springs' recreation programs superintendent, said Wednesday afternoon. “I think it's a great chance to showcase our facilities. It's what we build them for – to be used.”

The wind was whipping Wednesday afternoon as the Tigers took infield practice, but even the wind was welcome. Snow remains on the ground in Fairview, two weeks after 2 feet fell. So the Tigers have yet to practice outdoors on their home field this season.

Indoors, the players haven't contended with the sun getting in their eyes, the wind knocking a fly ball down or a ground ball taking a bad hop.

“You've got to be out in the elements,” Spinelli said.

Spring break hasn't been all practice for the Fairview team. On Tuesday evening, the Tigers drove to Cary to see the University of North Carolina baseball team play Princeton. UNC basketball coach Roy Williams was there. Nies got his autograph. The team has taken other field trips this week.

The Fairview visitors have praised Holly Springs' parks and recreation facilities. A Fairview parent asked Dickinson how many high school teams play at Womble Park.

“He was impressed,” Dickinson said. “He thought they were being used for high school. I said no, only ‘rec' ball.”

Wantz, who moved to Holly Springs nine years ago with wife Sherry, said the Fairview High team has received Southern hospitality throughout their visit.

“Everybody has been so nice to them,” Wantz said.

Whether the Tigers return next year depends partly on school and baseball schedules. Meanwhile, the snow is melting back in Fairview, so the Tigers expect to be on their home field soon.

“Green is starting to show up,” Spinelli said. “It means we're getting close.”

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