THE ROY MORSE SPORTS COMPLEX
Longview, WA

The Roy Morse Sports Complex is located in Longview Washington at the west end of town along highway 4. Nestled up against the west foot of Mt.Solo, the complex is home to Longview adult softball and Longview Babe Ruth. The complex has 4 adult softball fields and 2 Babe Ruth fields along with 2 soccer fields used mainly as practice fields. Adult softball is sponsored by the USSSA league and tournaments are mainly USSSA, some NSA tournaments are still held there.

The facility is a 55-acre park donated to the Longview Parks in the early 70's and was developed in two phases in the mid to late 70's by the Parks department along with volunteer help from the Longview Softball Association. The park is the second largest park in the Longview Park system with Lake Sacajawea being the largest park. Since Longview is a "Tree City USA" city the Roy Morse Complex is home to well over two hundred trees on the site that provide an abundance of shade along with the aesthetic appeal of the trees.

During the baseball and softball season a staff of one full time with part-time aid of one other full time Parks employee maintain the complex. In the past the complex has received awards from USSSA and NSA for outstanding park in the state of Washington and also received an "excellence in field maintenance" award from NSA in 2002.

The adult softball fields receive constant care and maintenance with the aid of a new Toro 3040 sand pro machine that replaced the John Deere 1200A in 2007. With the extra weight and quick-change rear implement system the Toro has proven to be a very useful field-grooming machine. As with any sports turf manager I rely a lot on my little ez-go to do the brunt of the jobs associated with sports turf maintenance. All the ball fields are mowed with a 5-gang reel mower with the rest of the park mowed with large rotary mowers by the mowing crew.

For the past decade the Longview Babe Ruth volunteers have been instrumental in upgrading the two baseball fields. Through monies raised, donations, and grants they have put in new backstops, dugouts, scoreboards, and two buildings for concessions and equipment storage. In rebuilding the fields they chose to have a fully grassed infield with only cutouts for the bases only. This concept has allowed them to get in games when other fields in the area are to wet to use. In fact the area high schools use the facility when their fields are wet from the areas plentiful rain. With the base paths and infield play area with a grass cover instead of skinned soil it holds up quite well to the hard use it gets.

Even though the facility is over 30 years old, the Longview Parks sports turf staff along with Longview Babe Ruth volunteers will keep it looking good long into the future. If you are traveling in the Longview area take highway 4 west towards the coast and turn left at light at the Bakers Corner store and stop in and see the "other gem" of Longview. Bring a lunch and let the kids play in the playground while you relax under the trees at the Roy Morse Sports Complex.