Picture courtesy of the Wall Lake Football Field Facebook page
A historic piece in Wall Lake will be celebrating 50 years and is needing some upgrades to continue serving residents and surrounding communities. The Wall Lake Athletic Complex was built after citizens were wanting a place to host games and practices for youth sports and is now starting to show its age. Wall Lake City Clerk Chris Rodman says just like five decades ago, a group of residents came forward and proposed ideas to improve the current conditions at the football and softball fields that will be spread out in multiple phases.
Inspiration for a fieldhouse came from a local, Mark Kuchel, who went from playing on the field to maintaining it. Rodman says it was Kuchel’s idea for a fieldhouse and started proposing to fundraise for it.
The committee has a fundraising goal of $700,000, that will be used to complete several projects which include the fieldhouse, new lighting, sidewalks, fencing and a scoreboard. Rodman says the committee is right now working to obtain a 501(c)(3) status to accept donations so all planning and ideas are very preliminary at the current moment. But the complex has hosted a lot of teams over the years, from the Wall Lake Comets, the WLVA Wolverines, to now the local school district and Rodman says many want the tradition to continue.
The Wall Lake Athletic Complex is owned by the city, but per a mutual agreement with the East Sac County District, school athletic programs are able to use the field at no cost. Rodman says pending of the non-profit designation, the committee is hoping to have at least the fieldhouse completed by this fall for the start of the next football season. A link to the Wall Lake Football Field Facebook page is included below to stay up to date on how to donate if interested and to monitor the progress of the initiative.
