By Zach Zook
NORMAL – Champion Fields has been a staple to the sports scene in the Bloomington-Normal area for a long time, but how did the establishment become so popular?
Cary Frey, the co-director of the USA Softball Girl’s Class A 16U National Fastpitch Championship, recently sat down with WJBC’s Patti Penn to discuss the history of Champion Fields ahead of quite possibly the largest active sports tournament in the area.
“We actually started our first world tournament in 1990,” said Frey.”That progressed to a second world tournament in 1995 and we’ve been doing national tournaments since 1994.”
Hosting a national tournament is a cool event, but it doesn’t come without work. This year, Frey is expecting to host around 120 teams. As he found out in 1990, if you want to host 120 teams, you need somewhere to put them all. Enter Champion Fields.
“We built four fields in 1996 and then saw a need to build four more, so in 2000 we added on to Champion Fields to what is now our eight fields,” Frey explained. “Eight fields sounds like a lot but when you get 120 teams out there playing between 70 and 80 games a day, we’re realizing we could even use more.”
Because the tournament is so large and attracts teams from all over the country, the level of play is extremely high. “Depending on what level you’re watching you always are amazed that age group can play at that level and just the effort, the time, and the commitment that these girls take,” Frey said.
As you might imagine, the tournament has grown over the years and requires a lot of support from the community. Frey largely attributes the tournament’s success to how well the community embraces it. Volunteers are always needed and can sign up at www.normal.org/usanationals. Overall, the tournament will consist of around 350 games and over 700 volunteers. The tournament will take place from July 30 to Aug 6.
Zach Zook can be reached at [email protected]
