Idaho Falls Tigers get an unfinished field of their own

IDAHO FALLS (KIFI) - The Idaho Falls Tigers have no problem playing on an unfinished field.

The Tiger Athletic Complex, or “TAC,” will eventually house most of Idaho Falls High School’s sports. The master plan calls for baseball, softball, soccer, and football fields, plus tennis courts and potentially an indoor facility.

No one had ever played a game at the TAC before the Tigers took the field against Madison on Tuesday. The first pitch was delivered without fanfare.

The field, though, wasn’t exactly ready. There are no bleachers. The walls are bare cinder block. There are no foul poles, no scoreboard, no lights, and the dugouts don’t even have roofs.

Trent Johnson, the Tigers’ head baseball coach, is the man behind the complex.

“About five years ago, me and a few parents really started talking about the resources and facilities for our kids,” he said.

“The thing is, we broke ground roughly a year ago,” he continued. “And this was a farmer’s field a year ago.”

“It’s been approved for four years,” explained Idaho Falls athletic director Pat Lloyd. “Last spring, really, was when we started getting that stuff in there. I think the sod went in and the turf went in on the baseball field in July.”

“About a week ago, we didn’t even have a net for the backstop,” added outfielder Anthony Morales. “So it’s kinda just sandlot-y, you could say.”

The Tigers typically play their home games at Melaleuca Field, which they share with Skyline High School and the Pioneer League’s Idaho Falls Chukars. But wet weather dampened the team’s ability to play Tuesday.

“We were over there at nine o’clock in the morning doing everything we could to try and get their field ready and playable,” Lloyd recalled.

But Mother Nature struck him out. The Tigers decided to change their game plan.

“If we can give the opportunity to the kids to go out and play versus not play, it’s an easy choice, an easy decision.”

"I mean, we’ve got half the dugouts done,” said first baseman Cooper Cammack. “Don’t have pens yet. But just being able to be out here and play games, even though we don’t have it all done, is nice.”

“At the TAC, you don’t really have a backdrop when you’re in the outfield,” Morales admitted. “It’s kinda hard to see the ball off the bat. Same thing in the box. I mean, it’s kinda hard to read the ball out-of-hand from the pitcher.”

These features will be installed with time, Johnson said. Funding, though, has often held up the TAC’s construction.

“We relied upon donors, as well as businesses that could provide product,” he explained. “The sod was donated for the entire facility. The concrete block was donated for the entire facility.”

The TAC was initially funded with $2 million from the school board, Lloyd said, but they’ve had to seek private donors and sponsors as well.

“I believe that we’re right around $1.5 million as far as money that has been raised outside of that $2 million,” he said.

“But that number would probably be $3 million to completely finish the complex,” Johnson added.

Cost also affected the baseball field’s playing surface. Johnson and Lloyd wanted a turf field, which would be easier to deal with in Idaho’s soggy climate. However, the school had to compromise with a turf infield and a natural grass outfield.

“The cost for a full turf field was a lot more than just the turf infield,” Lloyd said. “And that’s what it boils down to. Now you’re talking about the difference in probably $300,000-400,000.”

Johnson said the team does not plan to stop playing games at Melaleuca Field. The TAC, though, provides an important alternative for practices and inclement weather. Melaleuca Field may have all the comforts of home, but it’s not their home.

"This gives our students at Idaho Falls High School something that they can call their own,” Lloyd said. “It is their home field, which is a huge, huge thing.”

“Being able to feel like it’s our own and come to compete for it and not Melaleuca,” Cammack said.

"To play for something of our own, rather than sharing Melaleuca,” Morales added.

“There’s something to be said about home field advantage,” Johnson said. “Playing on your own field, showing up, taking batting practice, playing your game, taking care of the field when you’re done, having player banners being hung on the way in, that you can’t get off-site.”

The school has a rough timeline for the baseball field’s completion.

“We’d like to say ‘next few months,’ but I think by the end of this year the baseball portion of the complex would for sure be done,” Johnson said.

Sure, it will be a while before the TAC has all the bells and whistles. But Tigers coaches and players agree that simply having a field of their own is already a huge hit.