Turface Athletics honored Jesuit High School’s Paul Straub Field at Hyer Family Park in Tampa, Fla., as the Baseball Coaches Association “National Field of the Year.”
Representatives from Turface® — Adam Dibble, marketing manager, and Charlie Vestal, business manager — presented coach Richie Warren and Nick Suszynski, director of development, with the award at a pregame ceremony before the Tigers baseball team played Lakewood Ranch High School.
“Paul Straub Field is second-to-none in just about every facet of what you look for in a baseball facility,” Dibble said. “It’s an incredible field that any team in the country would be excited to call home.”
The 500-seat stadium opened last season and includes covered batting cages, a training room, separate junior varsity and varsity locker rooms, individual showers and a trophy hall. It was named “National Field of the Year” in December 2011 during the National High School Baseball Coaches Association convention in Raleigh, N.C. Turface Athletics is the official sponsor of the “National Field of the Year” award.
The facility was selected over other finalists from Arizona, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon and Virginia.
As part of the award, the school receives $400 for maintenance supplies, along with one ton of Turface material. Suszynski said the award was well deserved for the school community.
“This is a tremendous honor that validates all the hard work that went into the design of the park, as well as the generosity of the donors whom made this vision a reality,” said Suszynski.