‘It’s really neat.’ Baseball-softball complex first part of new Tates Creek High School to open.
Tates Creek’s baseball and softball teams spent all of last season on the road as their home fields were the first to be razed to become part of the massive $85 million construction project that will become their new high school this fall.
Now, those baseball and softball Commodores are the first to reap the benefits of that project. On Monday, softball held its home opener while baseball took advantage of the warm spring evening to dedicate its field with the help of some of the folks integral to its storied history.
The family of three-time state baseball championship coach Ron Cole, his former booster club president Larry Poynter (father of Coach Larry Poynter) and Dom Fucci, a Tates Creek legend as a basketball player in addition to being its baseball coach for nearly two decades, took part in the dedication ceremonies Monday.
“I’m quite impressed,” Fucci said. “It’s been special here to have Coach Cole’s family, Larry Poynter and a lot of former players and parents that made all this happen.”
Fucci and Poynter threw out the ceremonial first pitches as Cole’s wife Mary, son Brian, and daughter Shannon looked on. Coach Cole passed away last September at the age of 78. He led the Commodores to state titles in 1978, 1980 and 1986. Tates Creek won another state title under Coach Poynter in 2019.
Between the baseball and softball fields lies the Dom Fucci Fieldhouse, which contains locker rooms and offices for both teams as well as a three-stall indoor hitting facility, the first of its kind in the school system.
Fucci was a 1975 Mr. Basketball for Tates Creek and played baseball for the Commodores as well. He went to Auburn to play in both sports, but dedicated himself to baseball after one season and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox. He played six years in the minors. Fucci was Tates Creek’s baseball head coach from 1996 until his retirement in 2015, amassing a record of 463-219.
“This is our first time up here and it’s really neat,” Fucci said. “D-I schools would be impressed with this. The new school, I know the administration is excited about it and the kids.”
The new baseball field, like the old one, is named Cole-Poynter Field and sits in the old field’s footprint, although at a different angle. The elder Poynter helped build the original field which was constructed in 1997 on the site of what had been part of a city park. For 30 years until that time, Tates Creek played its home games at Athens Softball Complex.
Poynter has helped with the new facility, too, working on things like the scoreboard and dugout fixtures. He even still helps mow the field regularly. He watched Monday’s game seated in a riding mower outside the fence alongside left field.
“When we was down in 2020 and didn’t have a season, I about went stir crazy,” Poynter said. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t at a ball field.”
