Non-profit to upgrade Page County High School softball facilities

PAGE COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - A valley non-profit is preparing to help upgrade the softball facilities at Page County High School. OneOfUs.Care is looking to gather volunteers to build a roof over the school’s batting cages.

Jerry and Linda Carter founded the non-profit earlier this year with the goal of bringing people together to work on projects that help improve their communities.

“The concept is to do the equivalent of a group hug where anybody that wants to be a part of this can be a part of it and they don’t have to open their checkbook, that’s the goal,” said Jerry Carter.

Carter’s non-profit will reduce some of the strain the school would typically have to go through for a facility upgrade.

“The more rural that you are the fewer businesses that you have so the same businesses are constantly getting asked for money by each team, each sporting event, each situation. So the idea was could we do something without asking anybody for money,” he said.

Carter decided he wanted to build a roof over the batting cages as his next project in part to honor the program’s longtime coach.

“When we first started here this was just the field, no fence, one little small backstop. It’s taken a lot of help from a lot of different people, a lot of people have been involved with it but we’ve moved a long through the years and have added things from time to time,” said Page County Softball Head Coach Alan Knight.

Knight is entering his 42nd year as Page County’s softball coach. In that time he has four state championships, over 600 wins, and has built the school’s flagship athletic program.

“Girls who are 8 years old talk about the day when they can come play softball and having a facility where kids can come use it year-round will be helpful to continue the progress and growth of our program,” said Page County Athletic Director Bill Simmons.

Coach Knight said that adding a roof will allow his team to get more batting practice in even during bad weather.

“It’s something that’s gonna help our program, it’s obviously gonna do that. It’s just another thing that these kids that are here now will be a part of it and see it and reap the benefits of it,” he said.

Bill Simmons said the project is just the latest in a series of improvements that the school’s athletic department has made.

“Since COVID we’ve been looking for ways to improve how we feel about ourselves and you’ve seen that with the naming of the stadium after Buddy Comer. You’ve seen that with the upgrades that have been done throughout the facilities at Page County High School and all of that has been on the backbone of our community support,” he said.

Jerry Carter is excited about what the upgrade will mean for the surrounding Page County community.

“What it’s gonna do is just further cement what this place has become, how much it means to the community and I think that goes beyond the players. Every community out there wants to have something to feel good about,” said Carter.

Carter is in the process of finding a business partner to help him gather the necessary materials for the project. The plan is to start and finish construction in January, anyone interested in lending a hand can contact OneOfUs.Care at 276-398-2214.

“This past year and a half we’ve seen such a tremendous outpouring from various community organizations and it’s kind of culminating right now with OneOfUs.Care with Mr. Carter. We’re so grateful to anybody who is willing to step up and help out Page County Athletics,” said Simmons.

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