Tucson High Magnet School's softball and baseball teams have their home fields back.
Following a rededication ceremony attended by more than 300 people Saturday, the varsity and junior varsity Tucson High baseball and softball teams played four games Saturday on the new fields.
"It's a privilege to be able to play at a facility that we know most don't have," said Oscar Romero, head baseball coach. "As far as the venue goes, there is just nothing that can match it."
Located in mid-Tucson at South Cherry Avenue and East 13th Street, southwest of Broadway and Campbell Avenue, the fields are set in what is now known as Cherry Field Detention Basin. A $20 million project, the basin not only gives Tucson High athletic teams a home, it serves the dual purpose of flood control.
Starting in summer 2007, the city, Pima County Regional Flood Control District, Tucson Unified School District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Los Angeles District and Granite Construction Co. demolished the old Cherry Field and built the new Cherry Field Detention Basin.
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In a 20-year or larger storm, the water would come into the basin and drain out in about 30 hours, reducing the amount of water that flows down to Arroyo Chico, the Fourth Avenue area and Downtown Tucson, the Pima County Regional Flood Control District has said.
The Cherry Field Detention Basin is the second phase of the Tucson Drainage Area/Arroyo Chico Project, which combines flood control, recreation and environmental restoration.
When completed, the project will take 2,200 homes out of the 100-year flood plain, Shields said.
Tucson High's baseball, softball and soccer teams relocated to various fields during construction. The new Cherry Field will be home to the school's baseball and softball teams but will also be used by the soccer and freshman football teams, as well as the marching band.
Lee Carey, one of Tucson High's earliest and best-known professional athletes, called it an excellent facility. Carey, who played minor-league baseball and had a "cup of coffee" with the Cleveland Indians during the late 1940s and early 1950s, was one of several speakers at the rededication ceremony.
"I don't know if they realize how good they have it," said the 79-year-old Carey.
