The Town of Cicero, often called a hidden gem in northern Hamilton County, has yet another way to promote their community and help local athletes: The Cicero Sports Complex.
In recent years, the softball and baseball diamonds in Cicero have suffered a level of flooding that has prevented up to 35 percent of the scheduled games from being played. Now, due to the work of several people coming together to improve local sports, the Cicero Sports Complex is set to bring in up to 10,000 people and an unknown level of economic benefit to the town.
Hamilton Heights Amateur Sports Association (HHASA) President Jim Grubaugh told The Reporter, “I have been a part of HHASA for three years now. In the last two years Fields 5, 7 and 8 were pretty much lakes if it rained. My daughter plays softball and we were constantly rained out. We probably lost 35 percent of our scheduled games over the course of the year.”
According to Grubaugh, the drainage on those fields was not initially installed correctly by whomever built the fields. As an example, they were graded back toward the tower instead of being graded away.
Fixing the drainage was a collaborative effort between the HHASA league, the town, the parks department and Adam Decker from Ultimate Tournament Series.
“As of a couple weeks ago there was no water standing anywhere,” Grubaugh said. “I was shocked. We are excited for this year and are working on a five-year plan where we will continue to improve the fields and bring more people from out of town for events.”
Cicero Sports Complex Manager Adam Decker also runs the Ultimate Tournament Series (UTS), which organizes and promotes youth baseball and softball events.
“We are set to host eight weekends of full tournaments (7U through 14U) as well as a league with 24 teams for baseball,” Decker said. “Up to 1,200 people will visit each weekend, so over 10,000 people could come to Cicero over the course of a season.”
Decker called the previous state of the sports complex a bad situation in which two of baseball fields would stay flooded for days after a rainstorm. Now they are draining immediately.
“It would not have been ideal to run tournaments and leagues or try to expand on what they had going on if they did not do something with this issue,” Decker told The Reporter. “What they have lacked in the past has been some TLC since it has been a strictly volunteer organization. The biggest thing we bring to the table is daily workers to work, manicure, line, water the fields, to replace batter boxes and pitcher’s mounds after every game so it’s in excellent condition before every game begins.”
Decker says the sky is the limit now.
“Youth sports is such a big business these days,” Decker said. “It gets bigger and bigger every year. Cicero is a hidden gem right now. My company is going to promote what a nice facility this is and what a neat town Cicero is.”
Down the road there are options for nationwide events in Cicero. They may try to get a global world series there, which Decker says is not out of the question.
“I look for it to take off. This first year will be toughest just letting people know we are there,” Decker said. “By year two you will see a dramatic increase.”
Decker’s management duties for the facility are under the supervision of Cicero Parks Superintendent Charlie Cambre.
“The improvement project actually began about two years ago when Rusty Miller came on board with the town council,” Camber said. “He and Chris Lutz teamed up and saw an opportunity to have a manager over the complex. Adam Decker came on board. Initially it was the HHASA group who had first right to the fields.”
Cambre explained that Miller had to get the HHASA group and Adam together and work with the two groups and me. “HHASA is a volunteer group,” Cambre said. “Rusty saw an opportunity to get the fields managed better with the parks department involved in this venture. Everything will be channeled through me and I report to the town council.”
Cambre said he thinks the complex improvements and tournaments will bring an awareness of Cicero to a larger audience.
“Just by stepping up the program, what [Decker] brings is a full package. He has not only local contacts but also regional contacts.”
Cicero Town Council Member Chris Lutz credits Rusty Miller as playing a big part in getting the drainage issues fixed and helping set the stage for the economic development to follow.
“We put in the drainage with the intention of solving the issues out there,” Lutz said. “Will it solve all the drainage issues we have? No. I don’t anticipate it will, but the most important thing we were trying to achieve was to ensure the playing fields were getting drained as quick as possible.”
Lutz and Miller have been working on drainage and other improvements with the HHASA league.
“Getting the league to partner up with Adam [Decker] was part of the whole process,” Lutz said. “We had HHASA. They have done a good job out there, but they are all volunteer-based. But Adam is adding some tournaments to the schedule and he does this for a living. There is a lot to be gained by having him involved.”
Lutz looks at this project through the lens of taking care of the local youth.
“The revenue being generated was so low that there was not funding to take care of and make improvements to the fields,” Lutz explained. “Through hosting these tournaments, the utilization of the fields and revenue will be increased and can be put back into the complex. That will give a better playing experience to the local youth. Hopefully they won’t have as many rainout games and we can improve the facility overall.”
Lutz also wanted to note this would not have been possible without so many people coming together for the greater good.
“A big benefit is the willingness of the HHASA league to work with Event Coordinator Adam Decker,” Lutz said. “That was a concern we had going into this. Members of the community were concerned that we would be bringing someone in to just run tournaments and make money. That’s the last thing I want to do. I’m looking at it as, ‘How can I make the experience better for our local youth?’ I truly believe that by partnering with someone to run the tournaments it will make for a better experience for the local youth.”