A new name for a new field

CUTLINE: Former Bridge City Cardinal baseball coach Chuck Young returned to Bridge City in 2007 to join fellow coaches and former players for the annual alumni baseball game and home run derby that bears his name. The alumni displayed and mounted a sign honoring Young on the left field fence recognizing the beloved Bridge City coach.

RECORD PHOTO: Mark Dunn

David Ball

For The Record

There will be a new name for a brand new ball field.

The Bridge City Independent School District Board of Trustees approved naming the Bridge City High School baseball field after former coach, Chuck Young, at their regular meeting Monday night.

Young was inducted into the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2008.

Former Cardinal baseball players from 1967 until as recent as last season participated in the alumni game and home run derby. The alumni displayed and mounted a sign honoring Young on the left field fence recognizing the former Bridge City coach.

Young racked up nearly 700 career wins as a high school baseball coach. He took over the Bridge City baseball program in 1967 and led the Cardinals to the final round of the UIL State Baseball Championships in 1992 assisted by Coach Charles Miller. Young moved on to coach for Texas City High School reaching the state finals in 2007.

Young coached 31 playoff teams that included the two state baseball tournament appearances, six regional semifinalist, 10 regional quarterfinals championships, 15 bi-district championships and 15 district championships.

Also related to the baseball field, the board approved going with a synthetic turf for the infield with a TifTuf hybrid grass that will be sand chopped underneath the surface.

Representatives with Sports Field Solutions gave a presentation to the board. They said they have built more than 1,0000 fields in Texas. There’s an eight-year warranty on the synthetic turf and it also comes with replacement panels.

There’s an option of going with either a synthetic mound or a clay mound too. The synthetic mound can be changed out once a year.

With the synthetic field, the field can drain in 30 minutes after a 10-inch rainfall. Native soil won’t drain as quickly.

Also approved for the baseball and softball fields were new fences, new scoreboards, new dugouts, new restrooms and concession stand and new bleachers.

The stadium lights at the baseball field aren’t very old, so the district will keep them. However, the stadium lights at the softball field are older and will be replaced with LED lights. Additionally, two light poles at the softball field will need to be moved because the fence will be moved back per UIL rules.

The fence at the baseball field will be kept.

In other school district business, the board listened to a demographic study by Trent Smith of Templeton Demographics of Fort Worth.

He said job growth is currently flat in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metro area, but there are projects on the horizon such as Kinder Morgan’s $1.7 billion pipeline from Corpus Christi to Beaumont and from the Permian Basin to Houston, Motiva’s Port Arthur Refinery possible expansion with a final decision to be made in 2019 and Exxon-Mobil Refinery in Beaumont’s expansion starting in 2019. Furthermore, the unemployment rate is down .5 percent as the area continues to recover from the drop in the energy industry.

Locally, Bridge City has new businesses such as Auto Lube and Las Rosas Mexican Restaurant.

Hurricane Harvey brought in 59 inches of rain in Bridge City, damaged 800 homes and it had an effect on the economy.

Texas enrollment trends reveal metro areas are gaining children while rural areas are losing them. Bridge City is no exception to the rule. The state is seeing growth in the triangle between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston and San Antonio.

There has been a significant drop in children Kindergarten aged statewide and locally. Smith speculates it’s because of people putting off having children during the Great Recession and Millennials. Waiting to have children.

Bridge City is the fourth fastest growing in the Region 5 area of Southeast Texas with a 7.9 percent growth.

The 2018 Total District Population Estimate is 14,053, and 8.7 percent increase from 12,917 in the 2010 Census. The Total District Population below age 19 is 3,779, a 5.2 percent increase from 2010.

The 2018 Total District median household Income was $69,160, up 23.4 percent from 2010. The number of 2018 District Households was up 9.4 percent more than 2010

There are 330 more annual home sales, 62 more than last year, nine percent were new homes. Foreclosure sales in the district declined 88 percent since 2010 and new home sales have steadily increased since 2015.

The average price for a new home was $189,279 and the average price for an existing home was $137,295 in 2010; a new home in 2017 was $252,442 and an existing home was $192,203, a rise of more than 33 percent for a new home and 40 percent for an existing home.

BCISD has 170 lots available to build on and there are six developments with active home building: Cypresswood Village, Acadian Gardens, Acadian Quarters, Tyler Estates, Colonial Estates and Marsh Estates.

BCISD has 294 students residing in more than 860 multi-family units including manufactured home communities. The district has 96 students residing outside the district boundary. This represents 2.9 percent of the total student body. Roughly 56 percent of students reside within the city limits of Bridge City.

Since BCISD is a closed district, reported transfers are flat.

The 10-year forecast has BCISD enrolling more than 3,000 students this fall, a five-year growth of 501, a 2022-2023 enrollment of 3,489 students, a 10-year growth of 894 and a 2027-2028 enrollment of 3,882 students.