City recreation directors say they need at least part of a planned $6 million sports complex to avoid turning away amateur athletes in this "ball-crazy" town.

But the sports complex planned for 73 acres next to the Spanish Fork River will provide for more than just sports enthusiasts. It will be a park built with the entire family in mind, says city recreation director Jack Swenson.Besides baseball, Swenson said the city also needs more space for soccer, junior football, volleyball and other sports.

The complex is preliminarily designed in four phases. Phases one and three would provide the major portion of the playing fields, while two and four would be more for family recreation. The City Council has hired the architectural firm of Allred, Soffe, Wilkinson and Nichols from Salt Lake City to design it.

The base contract was for $389,800 but could run higher. Architects are paid a percentage of the cost of construction. The architects have already designed the preliminary plans that will be the subject of three public hearings in November.

The hearings will be held Nov. 11 at the Public Safety Building, 400 N. Main; Nov. 12 at Spanish Fork Junior High School, 820 E. 600 South; and Nov. 13 at the Spanish Fork Middle School, 900 E. Center.

"Spanish Fork has always been a ball-crazy town," said Swenson. City leagues are heavy into baseball and softball in the summer. With the record-breaking growth the city has experienced over the past few years, the popularity of playing ball has also increased, he said.

"We've run out of facilities."

Swenson has seen the popularity of sports grow from the beginning. "I started with the city in 1951 and started the first Little League team," he said. "We played wherever we could find a spot of grass."

Today, Spanish Fork has more amateur athlete participation than nearby Provo with less than a quarter of Provo's population, noted Dale Robinson, assistant recreation director and a former recreation employee in Provo. The home of Brigham Young Uni-ver-sity has about 80,000 residents, compared with Spanish Fork's 17,000.

"If you're not playing ball in the summer, you're not with it," Robinson said, describing the Spanish Fork athletic mindset.

"And we've not felt the full impact yet," added Karen Bradford, another assistant director. "We've done what we could to expand."

On any given night, except Sundays, the ball fields around Spanish Fork are busy as thousands of youths and adults play ball or watch from the sidelines. Play starts as early as February and runs through late fall. During tournaments, when the city hosts out-of-town players, participation swells to more than 7,000, she said. The city hosts 246 teams from 5-year-olds to adults. It has more than 1,200 volunteer coaches, including about 500 baseball coaches.

"It takes a lot of organization," Swenson said.

Spanish Fork's recreation program includes not only baseball, softball and soccer, but also tackles football for sixth- through ninth-graders. And while the intent is not to produce champions, but to give everyone a chance to play who wants to, it gave a start to such professionals as minor league baseball athletes Darrell Pruitt, Eric Smith, and Steve Gardener, now a coach at Utah Valley State College.

Outstanding college athletes have also come from the Spanish Fork recreation program and include Robbie and Randy Reid, who excelled in both baseball and basketball, said Swenson.

"We have as many as three or four a year that go on to play college ball," he said. "They had the opportunity through our programs to get started - but it took a lot of hard work," said Swenson.

Scott Brumfield of the Cincinnati Bengals played high school football at Spanish Fork.

The city recreation program has an unusual arrangement with Nebo School District. Rather than competing for playing fields and facilities, the two cooperate.

"We're serving the same people," City Councilman Clyde Swenson said during an early hearing for a new sports complex.

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While the schools use city ball fields, the city leagues use school gymnasium facilities for sports ranging from basketball to wrestling for kindergarteners to ninth-graders. Both entities went in together several years ago to build a $1.8 million pool and water park at Spanish Fork High School.

Swenson's vision for the complex, in addition to acres of playing fields, includes jogging trails, pavilions for family gatherings and an outdoor theater reminiscent of Orem's Shell Theater. The park would also allow some down time for maintenance, which now comes up short because of the heavy activity.

All players pay a fee to participate. During the 1997 fiscal year, the recreation program raised $238,000. But the budget topped $536,000, so the city had to subsidize it.

Swenson would like to build the entire new complex now but recommends that at least two phases be constructed right away.

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