Riverway Sports Park in Visalia opens next phase to Pillars of Fame, softball

Play ball!

Those two words kicked off the celebration for Riverway Sports Park's latest phase, which brings more softball fields and honors Visalia's best athletes.

Softball players, from tee-ball to fastpitch, lined up Friday night along with Visalia's leaders to cut the ribbon and run the bases as the season began under the lights.

"Over these many years we have watched the park develop and grow in various phases," Visalia Mayor Steve Nelsen said. "Some of these athletes will be taking the field for their first games after this ceremony."

Three local athletes were inducted into the city’s Pillars of Fame during the Riverway Sports Park ribbon-cutting ceremony. Councilman Greg Collins presented Allyson Giampietro Briano, Ricardo Rasner and Lauren Billys Shady with plaques for being exemplary athletes.

"Pillars of Fame is Visalia's way to honor local athletes that have reached the top of their sport," Collins said. "The Pillars of Fame serves to be a community inspiration which honors individual past athletes as well as encourages current and future athletes to be their best."

City Manager Leslie Caviglia detailed the softball fields' development over the years. The multi-phase project started in the late 1990s and has continued to expand since.

"It has taken a vast amount of community involvement and athletes that visit this park each and every day to make it what it is," Caviglia said. "When it (the park) was first thought of back in 1999... they were thinking a 20 acres park ― today we are completing 83 acres."

When the park opened in 2007, Phase I included 10 soccer fields with three lights. Phase II included the addition of a four-field baseball complex, while Phase III added another baseball complex — both primarily used for Cal Ripken's League. Phase IV, opened in November 2013 adding a new promenade, a turf area and an arbor.

Phase V included the addition of four softball fields, a central parking lot, a picnic arbor, lights for the softball fields as well as new lights for the complex’s five soccer fields.

Softball players and spectators got a firsthand look at the field’s new lights on Friday night following the ceremony.

"I would like to take a minute to challenge the young athletes who are here today," Caviglia said, as she turned to the softball players lining the grass. "I hope someday you are the one making another park happen here for the kids who are to follow you."

Lauren Jennings covers education and news for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow her on Twitter @lolojennings. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Riverway Sports Park opens next phase to Pillars of Fame, softball