Courtesy of the DuBois Little League
DuBois is proudly the hosting city for the 2018 Small College World Series for both baseball and softball. Starting last fall, a completely new renovation went underway to design and complete a brand new softball field located at the City Park in DuBois. This is an all-turf field that includes a complete brick backstop as well as a striped outfield for an appealing look. This field will completely turn around the quality of the softball fields in the area as it will be the main field for every game over the spring, summer, as well as the fall.
The baseball field in DuBois, Shower’s Field, is also experiencing a renovation that included the placing of artificial turf in the outfield to replace the sod that was laid a couple years prior. This will complete any needs of the field and put it in pristine condition. The field will now be all turf with brick backstop, storage garages, grandstands, and an outfield luxury box. This initial rebuilding began a few years ago, but is finally being topped off this spring.
City Manager John “Herm” Suplizio has said that the field progress was coming along nicely over the fall, but has experienced a slight obstacle with these extended winter conditions. The extra snow and sloppy conditions have made it difficult to advance with the work and stay on schedule while trying to not create a muddy mess. It appears as though the construction crews are just going to have to give in to the nasty weather conditions and hope to be able to work soon.
Courtesy of wjactv.com
Business’s of the town are excited for the World Series to come as the 10 baseball and 10 softball teams will be bringing plenty of business to the local hotels and restaurants with them.The local restaurants are sure to see tremendous increases in business and customers as these teams will need to eat dinner every night that they are here for the tournament, which should be close to a week. This is poised to be an overall great revenue booster for the town and uplifting for all of the local business’s that have been in need of support.
The Penn State DuBois Baseball team is looking to once again make an appearance in this tournament, as they have the last couple of year. Head Coach Tom Calliari has done an outstanding job in starting the team and recruiting solid local players to develop and play together to form a strong team. I have been fortunate enough to personally know Coach Calliari as he coached a travel baseball team that my brother, Clayton played on. He is not only a great baseball mind, but a person as well. His number 1 goal is not to build the best team possible, it is to build the best men possible. He teaches such important values, ethics, and morals to all of his players that greatly forms them into good people. Upon graduation, they are ready to go into the world and become leaders and nice people. It’s more than just baseball.
As for the Penn State DuBois Softball team, this will be the 1st year they are competing with a team. Local girls have been recruited to play on the team and have been participating in winter workouts to prepare for the upcoming season. This year appears as though it will be a building year as the roster total is low, and the girls have never played together before. Every team can relate to this is it is very tough to come out of the gates as a newly formed team and be able to compete with other teams that have been playing together for years. The girls will just have to work to build upon each game and hope to be able to put it all together at the end of the year for a possible post season run.
The both of the World Series tournaments taking place in DuBois this upcoming May is a great opportunity for the entire town to come together to enjoy the local area’s favorite pastime. Baseball has always been loved by the people of DuBois, all the way up from Little League to the high school teams and the college team at Penn State DuBois. People are able to get away from their worries for the night and just sit back, relax, and enjoy the entertainment. I know that I personally find watching baseball to be one of the most enjoyable and appealing things to do. Much like others in the area, I love seeing the defense, the offense, the field, atmosphere, and the food. All of this comes together to create an overall scene that cannot be topped. The spring season cannot come soon enough for me; I want nothing more that to smell the fresh air and enjoy the show.