One thing that has been a constant for me is whenever I get the time I like to go on a walk. Nothing crazy, but definitely long enough to get the juices flowing. My reliable destination surprisingly is also one of the places I spend the most time at during high school sports — the Charles E. Bailey Sr. Sportplex.
What has benefited the most from these long walks is the exploring to get to all that the Sportplex has to offer, which might I say is a lot.
Even with some slight variation from time to time, most of my walks begin at the baseball fields. The Sportplex is equipped with five fields, one serving as the home field for Benjamin Russell with the Brooks-Jordan field. I’ve seen baseball fields serve a multitude of purposes, but the one that always sticks out is with tournaments.
I think back to Opening Day for the Alexander City youth baseball teams and how the Sportplex plays host to all the blossoming athletes in the area. And crowds of people don’t just apply to Opening Day. There have been countless times where I’m about to start my walk and tournaments are under way.
The same can be said for the four softball fields also located in the Sportplex. This past season, the Wildcats used their venue to host five schools for the Strike Out Cancer tournament. What stands out to me is that a venue of this magnitude is not something you see every day. There are not many schools that can put on an event like Benjamin Russell High School can with the plethora of fields at their disposal.
But to get to the softball fields, I cross through the award-winning playground — Imagination Station. Without fail, the Imagination Station will be packed. It doesn’t matter if on the weekday, weekend, cold, heat or any of the other factors that would deter anyone from visiting; there will be a crowd.
It’s not just the Imagination Station that is hosting crowds of people. Now as the weather is warming up and the sun is coming out to reign in the start of the summer, the Splashplex has become a hotspot destination. I’ve seen countless birthday parties or just families enjoying the weather at the splash pad, especially during my walk.
I will admit one of the surprising aspects of my walk that I did not know about until I saw it being used was the disc golf course at the Sportplex. The course, similar to my walk, hits every part of the Charles E. Bailey Sportplex with each of its nine holes. I have not participated in disc golf before, but knowing it's essentially in my backyard makes me want to give it a try.
Ultimately to cap off my walk, I end with Martin-Savarese Stadium; the home of the Benjamin Russell football and soccer teams. One of my favorite moments this year was the Saturdays following a gameday during the fall while overlooking the stadium. I’d relive the game I had watched maybe less than 12 hours before at one of the better stadiums in the state.
There are so many other things that the Sportplex has to offer like the basketball gym, the outdoor fitness circuit, picnic areas and walk trailing. Alexander City Parks and Recreation director Kasey Kachek is constantly looking to make improvements, not just to the Sportplex but to all the other parks in the area. However, I implore everyone who hasn’t done so to do a walk of their own around the Charles E. Bailey Sportplex to see all it has to offer for the city.
Samuel Higgs is the sports editor of The Outlook.
