AGUA DULCE, Texas — The Agua Dulce Longhorns earned a UIL District 32-2A 13-2 win over Ben Bolt on Wednesday, but it was the celebration before the game that impacted the Longhorns the most. Seeing how community members can help a program grow from the ground up and flourish.
A simple handshake between Wyatt Ranches and Agua Dulce Superintendent Richard Wright built a field of dreams for the Longhorns.
"We feel that this project, this baseball field or property that we donated is an investment in the future of the Agua Dulce, not just the school district, but the community of Agua Dulce," Billy Wells, Wyatt Ranches senior business adviser, said. "We're investing in the future."
That agreement planted a seed. Agua Dulce received a donation of land for their much-needed baseball field, valued at approximately $40,000.
"We were sharing the field with the city and it's out south of town about a mile and a half, so we had transportation issues," Richard Wright, Agua Dulce Superintendent, said. "We had maintenance issues and the field out there was in the situation where we would probably have to put about $100,000 into it to fix it up and we didn't own it."
On March 22, it was time to play ball. Welcome to Wyatt Ranches Baseball Park.
"We're ecstatic. We've been waiting for this day all year. Our field last year was horrible," Miryk Hensley, Agua Dulce baseball captain, said. "There was not bleachers, no nothing. It just means a lot to us for Wyatt to donate this because we haven't had a field here in a long time, and we're just very excited to play on it."
"You know I think it's been a dream for the whole community for quite some time," Mark Gonzalez, elected district attorney for Nueces County and Agua Dulce 1998 grad, said. "You know we go to other schools and we play in beautiful facilities and we didn't have one of our own."
1998 Agua Dulce graduate, Mark Gonzalez, received the honor to throw out the first pitch. His donation ended the game with a 13-2 win for the Longhorns.
"It's a complete honor to have my name in my hometown on a scoreboard on a field that I am so glad and happy to have for our community," Gonzalez said. "I'm just blessed to be able to do that for our school."
"It's all about the students," Wright said. "I mean I can't tell you how much it means to us that our students can participate here at Agua Dulce's baseball park, Wyatt Ranches Baseball Park, on our property. It's an incredible feeling."
