JOHNSTOWN — For decades, baseball and softball teams fought the weeds as well as the opposing team.
But instead of playing at “Sticker Stadium,” as the old field was called, Johnstown residents now have a new field to call home.
The Ball Fields at Nelson Farm Park opened Saturday to a packed house. Every parking spot was taken, and people parked their cars and trucks along Weld County Road 15 to get to the festivities.
Michaele Cunningham’s four children all played at Sticker Stadium, the predecessor to the well-groomed four-field complex.
Her eldest daughter was a catcher.
“She did not ever want to let the ball get past her because if it did, it was full of stickers,” she said. “That field had stickers all over it, and that’s why it’s called Sticker Stadium.”
Cunningham said the field improved as community members pitched in to clean it up. The Roosevelt High School girls softball team played league games at Sticker Stadium.
Now, the girls team has well-groomed base paths with not a sticker in sight. There’s also a regulation high school baseball stadium and two multipurpose fields for adult and youth games.
Kaitlin Flynn, 13, will try out for the Roosevelt High team next season. She and her teammates, Lauren Augustino, 16, and Jazmyn Martinez, 15, dreaded sliding at Sticker Stadium.
“The ground was really hard; it was not like normal fields,” Augustino said. “There was hardly any grass. It was all dirt.”
Flynn said the new fields also are larger, look nicer and hold more spectators.
Paul and Charlene Nelson donated the land so their grandchildren could play ball on nice fields. The couple donated 27 acres to the Thompson Rivers Parks and Recreation District for the ball fields.
Charlene Nelson said the fields are important to the town. Sticker Stadium’s schedule was packed, and the teams couldn’t practice. Also, she said, children need to grow up playing sports.
“You win a few, you lose a few and you go on,” she said. “And there’s nothing cuter than a little kid strutting around in his uniform. He’s so proud, and he belongs. That’s why we have gangs, because they don’t belong to anyplace. They want to belong.”
Bernie Covillo, a coach for the RoughRiders, a fifth- and sixth-grade boys baseball team, said the league had only three fields before Nelson Farm Park was built. He said it was a “scheduling nightmare.”
“It’s awesome,” Covillo said of Nelson Farm Park. “It’s a great place for the kids to come and the families to come and enjoy a day of baseball. It’s so much nicer than the facilities that we previously had.”
Two of the fields have lights for night play.
Sticker Stadium will remain in use.