FAIRVIEW TWP — In a staggering display of support, players and parents showed up in droves to support Karns City Area Jr./Sr. High School’s head baseball coach Joshua “Sluggo” Smith as he brought a request for a home baseball field before the school board at its meeting Monday night.

Equipped with a preliminary proposal for a $1.5 million project, Smith said he has been in contact with Fairview Township supervisors about a possible site for the field near the municipal building on Hooker Road.

Smith, who graduated from Karns City in 2004, said the turnout shows just how much the district needs its own field to host games, as current travel times cut into his players’ time for homework, family, hobbies and proper rest.

“We are asking these kids to be on the bus 22 times a year,” Smith said, “every game is an away game.”

Despite the challenge of sometimes not arriving home until close to midnight due to travel time, Smith said the team is in its third consecutive year of having no players on the school’s extracurricular ineligibility list, meaning members maintain passing grades in all subjects.

He said the team utilizes Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park in Butler for many of its games, but in recent years, the park has fallen into disrepair, which makes player safety a risk.

“They don’t update anything, and the fence is falling apart. The nets are falling down ... player safety is important, too,” Smith said, “When you have to pick and choose where you stand in the dugout when foul balls are coming your way, that’s not safe.”

He also said that because of the need to rely on other organizations’ fields, the baseball program sees no money from admission or concession sales.

“I hate to say it, because I take pride in being a coach ... changes or actions kind of need to be made, or I’ll be stepping down as head baseball coach,” Smith said, citing the strain of long bus rides and planning around other organizations as becoming too much to deal with on top of his full-time job and other responsibilities.

“I don’t want to do it,” he said of resigning, “I would have done this until retirement, but it’s hard to fight an uphill battle.”

The board voiced unanimous support for Smith and his proposal for a home field, but discussed limitations the district is under when it comes to funding and acreage for development, as excavation of the remaining undeveloped school property would be too costly.

Board president Josh Price, who also grew up playing baseball, said with the finalization of the Chicora Elementary expansion project, a new field would be difficult to swing.

“It’s definitely something that’s been on the radar, and we’ve had discussions on this for a while ... it’s bad timing,” Price said.

Smith said Fairview Township supervisors told him they are willing to enter a multiyear lease with the district, but superintendent Eric Ritzert said the district can’t give funds to the municipality for the off-site project to get off the ground because it isn’t owned by them.

As no formal discussion between the school district and the township has taken place, board member Domina Hillwig Friel suggested the district reach out to township officials directly to discuss the possibility, earning agreement from fellow directors.

They suggested inviting them to the April 24 board meeting to see what possibilities are available to each.

“I think everybody in the room supports what they’re trying to accomplish,” Ritzert said, “It’s the how you accomplish it that’s the challenge. If we can work it out, there’s a chance it can take place.”