On Sunday, April 15, the EvCC Trojans played their first home game at the newly renovated Everett Memorial Stadium.

While it feels like the season has just started, the Trojans can finally play baseball in their own community in front of their student body.

The baseball field has had a natural grass and dirt playing surface for decades. But, after inclement weather and poor irrigation forced the Trojans as well as the Everett High School “Seagulls” Varsity Baseball team to play and practice elsewhere, a change was needed.

“Last year we only played one game,” said Trojans Manager Jojo Howie. “The field was underwater the whole season.”

Despite the field being unavailable for either games or practices, the Trojans still made the best out of the situation. Practices were moved to the adjacent football stadium behind the third-base concourse. Home games were played and relocated to any available field in driving distance of the city of Everett.  

Even without the luxuries of a home field, the Trojans still managed to make their trip to the NWAC Championship Finals for the second straight year in a row.

“It’s going to be exciting for the boys to get some reads (practice catching outfield flies) with an actual right field,” Howie said.

The need for renovation was brought to attention by the Everett Public School District, who owns the property of Everett Memorial Stadium.

“They were upset because their team (Seagulls) didn’t get to play on it as well, nobody did and it was a disaster last year,” said Howie. “Obviously they had enough of it.”

Howie noted the reasoning for the change is that most of the Seagulls high school opponents still have a natural grass and dirt playing surface at their home fields.

“All of King County’s [high school sports leagues] have turf,” says Howie. “It’s nice to see WESCO step up and get themselves a turf field.”

Renovation began at the end of October and the initial plan was to have the renovation completed by mid-march. However, rains delayed the process and pushed the completion back to late March.

The delays didn’t phase the Trojans as they were 17-7  across all competitions.

With the renovation complete, Howie see’s this as an improvement for the baseball program in the long term.

“There’s definitely going to be more fans in the stadium then when we played at Bellingham,” Howie adds. “We’ll get more recruits that will watch. More parents from the area will be able to make it out to the game.”

With the new surface, the Trojans can still continue practice and games on the new field despite bad weather. “The difference is use and actually being able to get out there when it’s raining instead of having to practice on a football field,” Howie said.  

“We’re excited,” said Trojans pitcher Ayden Callahan. “We can actually play in front of some fans and not have to travel to our games.”

With a newly renovated field and a successful team in strong form, Howie believes the program will continue to accel further.

“I believe it’s the nicest field. I think we have the nicest facilities in the entire NWAC,” says Howie. “We’re grateful for it, we have a winning tradition with a beautiful facility now. Now, we have a facility to back the success up of our program.”

Howie continues, “It’s easier to get a kid to want to play here when they walk out onto the field and look at a stadium that has all the big lights and everything a major D1 or university team would have.”