A desire by Terry Roberts for a softball team for his daughters led to the field that has been named for him. The French Camp softball field officially became the Terry Roberts Field in ceremonies at the team's first slow-pitch game of the season Aug. 12.
“We felt it was a good time to name it for him,” said French Camp headmaster and athletic director Rusty McKnight.
“I was honored to say the least,” Roberts said. “But it wasn't just me. I was thinking about the 20 or 30 other people who helped along the way, especially with coaching because I was not trained to be a coach.”
Roberts was a science teacher at French Camp in 1995. His daughters, Sarah and Annie, both French Camp students, had played summer softball, but the school did not have a team. Based upon Title IX, Roberts approached the administration about starting a softball program.
“I told them we need another girls program. They said fine; you build the field and you coach it.”
It took three efforts, but the school finally had a field.
“We did have lots of property here at the school. At the time we were doing a lot of farming. We had cattle and hogs and we were growing our own corn. They said you can build a field by the cornfields, but don't take up more space than you need.”
So Roberts started the task of creating a softball field. “We got out there with whatever equipment we could find.”
But by the time the field was smooth enough to plant grass, the school decided it needed the space for a swimming pool. So Roberts moved over and started the process again. There was another “but.”
“Somebody made a big donation to build some nice tennis courts. And they wanted to locate the courts, next to the pool.
”I said okay, we'll move again next to the tennis courts.” And that's where the field is located.
The softball team practiced for a year before beginning slow-pitch in 1996. Roberts coached slow-pitch for 15 years. He retired as a French Camp teacher in 2015, but still lives on campus because his wife Mary is a teacher.
“This is our 40th year.”
The first fast-pitch coach was his daughter Sarah.
Along with the naming of the field came a scoreboard. Roberts said that was the doing of his two sons-in-law, Josh Skidmore, Sarah's husband, and Dr. Paul Gundy, Annie's husband. Sponsors of the scoreboard are Autumn Ridge Dental Clinic in Kosciusko, Dr. Gundy's clinic, the Skidmore family and the Roberts family.
The entire family, including three grandsons and three granddaughters, participated in the dedication ceremonies. One of his granddaughters, Jillian Skidmore, plays for French Camp.
