Hewitt-Trussville softball celebrates the opening of Roberts Stadium

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Sports

The Hewitt-Trussville High School softball program now has a home on par with its standing in the state.

Roberts Stadium officially opened Feb. 21 as the new home of the Huskies. The facility is across the street from Hewitt-Trussville Stadium and the Trussville Civic Center and is without argument among the top softball-only facilities in Alabama.

It features a stadium designed specifically for softball, equipped with a turf field, a new press box and an awning over the bleachers to shield spectators from the elements.

Beyond right field is a facility that houses the locker room, coaches’ offices, batting cages and more.

Bill Roberts, whose name is on the stadium, is impressed. The former Trussville City Schools Board of Education president has long been an advocate of the softball program, and he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the stadium’s inaugural game as well.

“It’s second to none,” Roberts said of the facility. “Just the overall beauty of the stadium. If it rained this morning in the old days, we wouldn’t have been able to play. Now you look at it and it’s beautiful.”

For Roberts, seeing the field come to life was an emotional moment after years of supporting athletics and education in the community. One of Roberts’ favorite features sits on the outfield fence.

“The numbers on the fence,” he said, referring to the program’s state championship years displayed on the wall.

He also credited the school system’s leadership for making the project possible.

“You can’t be successful if you don’t have a good administration who supports it,” Roberts said. “Superintendent Dr. Patrick Martin is a sports fan. He loves it and he gives the support and the resources.”

Goldie Paine Field served as Hewitt-Trussville softball’s home since its inception, remaining as the home site even as the new high school was constructed in 2008 and the old high school became what currently is the middle school.

While the stadium is brand new, the success that helped bring it to life has been building for years.

For years, Hewitt-Trussville’s softball program built its reputation on winning games and producing elite players. Many of the players responsible for that were on hand for the inaugural game, as a few dozen alumni were in attendance and recognized. A few of the recent standouts would have been there if not for having their own college games to play that afternoon.

That also included several members of the Huskies’ 2019 state championship team, the first of four the program won between then and 2024. Among them were former pitcher KK Hughes and standout slugger Hannah Borden, two of the most decorated players in program history.

Both players described their first reaction to seeing the facility as disbelief.

“I think my first thought was, holy cow, this is awesome,” Hughes said. “It’s huge. This is all so nice.”

Hughes helped lead the Huskies to the 2019 state title, becoming the team’s ace pitcher by necessity initially, but ultimately thriving in the role. Even after playing at the collegiate level at South Alabama, she said the new stadium compares favorably with many places she has seen.

Borden, another key figure in the program’s rise who went on to star at Southern Miss, had a similar reaction.

“My first thoughts were, I wish I could have played here,” Borden said. “But I’m really glad that we were able to pave the way for them, because I’m really proud of Coach Taylor [Burt] and the whole coaching staff for building this program up so much.”

Both players pointed to the pride their teams feel in helping lay the foundation for the program’s current success.

Hughes said the 2019 championship group helped start the momentum, though she was quick to credit the teams that followed.

“I feel like we were able to get the ball rolling,” Hughes said. “A lot of people say that about us, like, ‘Y’all started it and y’all are the reason this is here.’ But it also took everybody after us to keep it going.”

Borden agreed, saying the memories created during those years remain some of the most meaningful of her career.

“We have a lot of pride in it,” Borden said. “We talk about it all the time. A lot of the memories we made here with these girls we’ll cherish more than college sometimes. It’s just a different experience with the high school girls that you grew up with.”

At the center of that sustained success has been head coach Taylor Burt, who took over the program in 2018 and helped elevate Hewitt-Trussville into one of the state’s premier programs.

For Burt, seeing the stadium open with alumni, players and supporters gathered together made the moment especially meaningful.

“It meant a lot to us as a staff and to me personally as a head coach that our school system administration, our local community and our state provided us the opportunity to build such an incredible facility,” Burt said. “It was such a surreal moment to see our girls take the field there for the first time along with all of the alumni in attendance.”

Burt emphasized that the stadium is the result of years of work by players who helped establish the program’s winning tradition.

“A project like this wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of the girls that helped build the program and the success that came from that,” Burt said. “I hope that our facility is the first of many to come for female athletes in the state of Alabama. I’m proud that our school system thinks enough of our girls to give them such an incredible place to learn and grow in as a program.”

As the Huskies finally took the field for the first official game at Roberts Stadium, the significance of the moment stretched well beyond the scoreboard.

Even so, the Huskies did win the first game in the new stadium, putting Burt at ease for a little while at least. Now, it’s up to the Huskies teams of this year and beyond to have their level of play continue to match the quality of their home venue.