After at least a decade as one of the top softball teams in the state, the girls team at Soddy-Daisy High School finally is getting a field of its own.
Coach Clifford Kirk has been visiting local softball fields to get ideas for what his team wants. He said he hopes construction will be under way soon, and finished in time for the start of the season in February.
“It’s just so much better for us, more convenient for us,” he said. “We have more control over when we practice, how long we practice.”
For years, Mr. Kirk’s team has shared a field with the Soddy-Daisy Kids Club near Soddy Lake. Because the high school boys have a baseball field on campus, the practice has raised gender equity concerns in the past, Mr. Kirk said.
So to level the playing field, the Hamilton County Commission voted last week to give about $26,000 to Soddy-Daisy and East Hamilton high schools to comply with Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in education.