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Photo by Jon Anderson
The concession stand, restrooms, dressing room and press box facility for the Vestavia Hills High School baseball program is slated for a $2.3 million renovation. This is how it looked on Jan. 6, 2025, prior to the renovation work beginning.
2 of 3
Photo by Jon Anderson
The concession stand, restrooms, dressing room and press box facility for the Vestavia Hills High School baseball program is slated for a $2.3 million renovation. This is how it looked on Jan. 6, 2025, prior to the renovation work beginning.
3 of 3
Photo by Jon Anderson
The concession stand, restrooms, dressing room and press box facility for the Vestavia Hills High School baseball program is slated for a $2.3 million renovation. This is how it looked on Jan. 6, 2025, prior to the renovation work beginning.
The Vestavia Hills Board of Education today approved a $2.3 million renovation project for a building at Vestavia Hills High School that includes the baseball field concession stand, restrooms, dressing room and press box.
The school board also voted to name the building the Waggoner Family Baseball Facility in honor of state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, his wife Marilyn and children Scott, Mark, Lyn and Jay.
Jay Waggoner was a standout baseball player for Vestavia Hills High School, helping lead the school to its first baseball state championship during his senior year of 1991. He was a first team All-American and also helped the Auburn Tigers get to the College World Series in 1994. He then was drafted by the Detroit Tigers and played in their minor league system for two years.
The current concession stand, restrooms, dressing room and press box are all outdated and much in need of renovation, Superintendent Todd Freeman said. The bathrooms are extremely small and dated, and the design of the building leads to crowded conditions around the seating area, Freeman said.
Perhaps most importantly, there are some safety concerns with the building in its current state, and it needs to be brought up to meet current building codes, he said.
The Vestavia Hills school board is only spending about $160,000 of its own money to cover architect design fees. The city of Vestavia Hills, which routinely uses the field for its middle school program tournaments and championship games, is contributing $1.2 million, and $800,000 is coming from grants from the lieutenant governor’s capital improvement fund, state Sen. Jabo Waggoner and Jefferson County Commissioner Mike Bolin, Freeman said. The rest is coming from corporate and other private donations, he said.
Naming the facility after the Waggoner family is fitting because Sen. Waggoner has been an incredible supporter of the school system for decades — as a legislator, community member and parent, Freeman said.
Whether helping out with athletic or academic needs, “he’s always just worked behind the scenes to support our schools,” Freeman said.
Vestavia Hills Councilman Rusty Weaver said Jay Waggoner is the only Vestavia Hills baseball player to have had his jersey number retired at the school. His father has always had a soft spot in his heart for the baseball program, and they have been talking about needed improvements to this building since early 2020, Weaver said.
School board member Jay Stewart, who graduated from Vestavia Hills High School with Jay Waggoner and played baseball with him, said Mrs. Waggoner has been there supporting the school and baseball program every step of the way over the years as well.
Stewart said he still remembers when thousands of people showed up for a championship baseball game and there weren’t proper restroom facilities to accommodate them. “This has been a long time coming,” he said.
Sen. Waggoner also is being honored Jan. 16 at the baseball program’s leadoff dinner at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center in conjunction with the Vestavia Hills Sports Hall of Fame reunion.
The baseball field itself has been named Sammy Dunn Field since 2000 in honor of former longtime Coach Sammy Dunn.
