Forgive Kamehameha-Hawaii baseball coach Andrew Correa if he’s a bit jacked up about the Warriors’ new field.
After years of dealing with East Hawaii’s heavy precipitation, the Warriors now have a drainage system and artificial turf.
“It’s the best in the state,” Correa e-mailed on Monday. “And it doesn’t flood.”
The new field is all AstroTurf, and if that sounds familiar, it’s very similar to the same product that covered the field at Aloha Stadium for decades.
“AstroTurf product works best for baseball. Two types of turf,” Correa wrote. “(The) same engineers that did Roosevelt and Waiakea football fields designed it.”
Long gone, for the most part, is the stress and aggravation of rainouts that came with life in that part of the Big Island. Rescheduling games got a whole easier. There was a time, for old-timers, when UH-Manoa dealt with a similar headache. Then came the complete overhaul, dredging out tons of earth and laying down a skeletal-looking draining system during the 1980s.
Correa can’t help his enthusiasm.
“Nothing even comes close to this right now,” he said.
The Warriors were 3-1 in preseason action at the Maui and Hilo tournaments. They hosted Leilehua on Feb. 29 in a scrimmage and won 15-3.
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