WAYNE COUNTY, Utah — Despite being a small, rural community, Wayne County has a history of producing star athletes, according to County Commission Chairman Roger Brian.
“We're a fairly poor county,” he said. “We're 97 percent public land. Our girls are starting to play softball quite a bit. There is no place for them to practice. We've even practiced in the rodeo corral.”
Most families travel at least an hour, sometimes three or four days a week, just to make it to the only ball fields in the county.
“The kids, they miss out on a lot because we're kind of away from everyone,” said Jakelle Pace, the County Commission secretary. “We're so rural. It's hard for them to be as involved in as much.”
Maybe not anymore though: thanks to an anonymous donation three years ago, Wayne County was able to create two new baseball fields in Loa near the county fairgrounds.
"This family that donated the funds, they were huge baseball fans,” Pace said. “They would travel all over the United States and the world to watch the game of baseball, and that they were looking to find the perfect community, and when he come across Wayne County, he just knew that these kids needed this ball field, and that these families would have years and years of lots of fun and adventure ahead of them.”
Wednesday night was the first game on the new “Gigi’s Ballpark” for the Wayne Badgers. While they might not have won, Pace said they definitely had the most fun.
