So All Can Play
New surface levels the playing field for disabled athletes in the Valley
by Scott Hoover

As a child growing up, the baseball diamond almost became my second home. Whenever the weather allowed, my friends and I could be found at the local park playing pickup games or at the local school playing Strikeout (a one-on-one game where one person pitches and the other hits, and the hitter is awarded singles, doubles, triples, homeruns and outs depending on what barriers the ball was hit over). Baseball was my way of life.

However, what if during this time I had some sort of disability and had to use a wheelchair or walker? There were really no alternatives for children without use or with limited use of their legs.

Times have changed but until recently, there still was very limited facilities found in Phoenix for children with these types of disabilities. Now, wheelchairs and walker-bound young people are forced to navigate on uneven dirt and grass fields or not play at all. However, last fall, a first-of-its-kind youth sports complex changed all that.



Welcome to Reach 11
The Diamondbacks Youth Complex, funded in part by the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation, now offers something no other youth sports complex in Arizona has—TotTurf, which literally levels the playing field for children who use wheelchairs or walkers.

TotTurf is a forgiving rubber material that stabilizes the playing surface for disabled athletes. Two of the fields in the huge, four-field complex known as Reach 11, located along Cave Creek Road at the intersection of Deer Valley in North Phoenix, are made entirely of TotTurf, while the other two are regulation Little League fields. The goal for this complex allowing disabled children to have a safe place to play ball and  encouraging disabled and mainstream children to play together and learn more about each other.

Ken Kendrick is the managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and since 2000, the Diamondbacks Foundation has built or refurbished 26 baseball fields as part of the "Diamonds Back" Youth Field Building Program allowing children from across the state to play baseball and softball at quality facilities all over the state of Arizona. However, even for Kendrick, the Reach 11 project was on the high end of cost spectrum.

“We usually build one field at a time in areas around the state that are in need of updated or new facilities,” he said. “Cost wise, we usually invest approximately $300,000—the total cost for the Diamondbacks Youth Complex was $3 million.”

Not only did the project include the construction of four fields, but it also included the infrastructure and roads that led into an undeveloped area that would become Reach 11.
“One of the cornerstones for the Arizona Diamondbacks, its players and all of Major League Baseball, is to give back to the communities that support us,” Kendrick said. “With the knowledge there was no other handicap accessible baseball field in the state, we felt this project was very important for the community as a whole, and that made the cost of the project all worth while.”

Reach 11, which is run by the City of Phoenix Parks & Recreation Department, which provides year-round, inclusive recreational, social, educational, employment and training programs for Phoenix area children, teens and adults with disabilities, also is beginning to use the fields for other sports as well.

Recently, the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department announced an opportunity for children with disabilities to experience the fun of playing soccer. The Adaptive Soccer League is forming for boys and girls ages 6-18 who have a physical, sensory, and /or cognitive impairment, with all games held at Reach 11.

“This was a unique project, but it is just one way the Arizona Diamondbacks and their players can give back to our community and help a group of children who without this effort might never know the joy of playing and participating in baseball and other sporting activities,” stated Kendrick.  K&S