Cary-Grove youth baseball and softball organization kicks off season despite losing Maplewood home base

Hundreds of children of the Cary-Grove Youth Baseball and Softball organization on Saturday walked down First Street in Cary with their families and team members for the season kickoff parade. The smiles, turnout and energy were the same as in previous parades, but major changes have affected the volunteer organization.

CGYBS lost its home base at the Maplewood property after School District 26 started making moves to demolish the vacant school and move forward with construction of a new transportation center. This loss required the organization to find alternative storage areas and fields. This also changed the kickoff parade route that used to go from downtown Cary to the Maplewood site. With the support of the Cary Park District and Ss. Peter and Paul church, CGYBS instead paraded down First Street to the soccer fields by Cary-Grove High School.

The organization supports about 500 kids, ages 5 to 18, CGYBS President Bob Johnson said. Despite the major changes, those numbers are consistent this year compared with previous years.

In partnership with the Cary Park District, CGYBS will use Lions Park fields five days a week. The organization typically had used the fields two days a week.

“That saved us as far as having enough fields. Plus, they have lights,” Johnson said. “So that allowed us to offset, at least partially, the loss of Maplewood fields.”

CGYBS and the Cary Park District have had a “positive working relationship going back decades,” Cary Park District Executive Director Dan Jones said. Johnson said that without the help from Lions Park, it would have been “a huge obstacle” to find enough fields for the teams.

“Working together to find solutions that support the important services CGYBS provides the community is something both CGYBS and the Park District desired to achieve,” Jones said in an email to the Northwest Herald.

Other field locations include Algonquin Road Elementary School, Foxmoor Park and Hunters Park in Fox River Grove, and Sherwood Park and Cary Junior High School in Cary.

Before the current transportation center, Maplewood had seven baseball fields. After the proposed construction, that would be down to four or five. CGYBS planned not to use the fields at all this summer because construction was expected. Johnson said he remembers when all the fields at Maplewood would be filled with games played simultaneously.

“The place is just jammed,” Johnson said. “And it can’t be replicated.”

It is still challenging to find enough practice fields and storage space, Johnson said. CGYBS had to rent a storage container behind Lions Park after they lost storage and garage space at Maplewood.

“Having everything at Maplewood was like having a headquarters,” he said. “Everything is here except for the equipment you need elsewhere, and now it’s kind of spread around.”

The district’s plans are now on hold after the village of Cary rejected the plans earlier this month, putting a pause on the demolition of the school, too. Asbestos abatement still will be done on the Maplewood school, District 26 Superintendent Brandon White said.

Before the village put a halt to District 26′s plans, CGYBS already had removed their league storage shed at Maplewood in preparation for the demolition and it was donated to the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove, Johnson said.

“It has been an interesting ride,” he said.