Brookfield entering ‘phase 2’ with plans for new baseball, softball fields
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After successfully converting its soccer field into a new, on-campus football stadium this fall, Brookfield plans to also move its baseball and softball games from Brookfield Community Park to the Warriors' Bedford Road campus, athletic director Ken Forsythe said last week.
Forsythe said the baseball and softball fields would be placed behind the home stands of the new football stadium, which opened earlier in the month with Brookfield's game vs. Valley Christian.
"It was in the plans when we first talked about moving the football field up to the soccer field," Forsythe said. "We wanted everything on one campus, so it’s kind of phase two of where we are now. It’s gonna be the next thing we possibly do."
Forsythe, while reiterating that there is not a set date for when the move will happen, said he hopes the project, which is still in the very early stages, could be completed in time for the 2026 spring sports season.
"I would like to see us work on them in the spring and summer and hopefully, play the following spring up here," Forsythe said. "That would be my vision of the whole thing. But again, it’s going to be how we get it laid out, who’s doing the work and things like that."
After the field is laser scanned, the next step in the process, Forsythe said, would be opening the new constructions up for bids.
The new fields would be yet another development since Forsythe, a Brookfield alumnus, was named athletic director last July.
Forsythe, who served as president or vice president on the Brookfield Youth Baseball and Softball board for nearly 25 years before stepping down recently, expects a move from the park to the school's campus to be a positive one.
"It’ll be for the best," Forsythe said, "because that’ll give our youth teams in the community more opportunities to practice and play games during the months of April and May, that sometimes our high school games are taking up that space for them."
The move from the park, located on Stewart Sharon Road about two miles southeast of the school's campus, may take some adjusting, but Forsythe said he anticipates the new fields to eventually have the same impact on the community's youth players that the park does.
The athletic director said the new location will "probably be a better scene" for the youth teams, and he envisions kids and parents having the opportunity to watch youth games at the park and high school games on Brookfield's campus back-to-back.
"It’s exciting for me because it’s going to be all on one campus," Forsythe said. "We’ll be able to show the view from up here, and once it’s all done, people, I think, will really enjoy the picture of everything."