“I was riding my bike down First Street and saw a good friend of mine out there in Maplewood Park by Bay Town, James Dawkins, training some youth out there on the basketball courts. That was great to see, but the courts were in really rough shape. They weren’t like how I remember them growing up—they had some really wide cracks with weeds growing out of them. So I reached out to Jesse Dockett, who was the First Ward Commissioner at the time to see if there was anything that I could do to help clean up that area. He connected me with Dana Muscott, our City Manager, and within a couple of days, we had a crew out there. They couldn’t fix the cracks, but took down the weeds and made it look as good as they could.
But I felt that our kids really needed new basketball courts, so Dana connected me with Tim Botzau at the Parks Department and I told him about what I wanted to do and we got the green light to pursue the project. Ryan Tarrant, the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce President at the time, heard about what I was doing and connected me with Rob Clark. The Bay Area Soccer Association was looking for a way to bring soccer to the East Side of Bay City, and they were interested in creating soccer fields where the tennis courts were on the other side of Maplewood Park. Instead of fighting for the same dollars trying to do two separate projects only a couple feet from each other, it only made sense to collaborate and bring our projects together.
And that’s how the Maplewood Sports Complex project was born: new basketball courts and soccer fields on the East Side of Bay City.
Rob has really been the mastermind spearheading this project, and it’s been a great experience learning from his leadership and being part of the journey.
When the project is complete, Maplewood Park will have new basketball courts and soccer mini pitches. There will be a pavilion built between those mini-pitches, along with a walking track around the park with workout stations in different sports. It will be handicap accessible.
So, you know, right now, you see the the bar courts developing, you see the mini pitches up, you know, and there's still going to be a pavilion built kind of in between those mini pitches, you know, we're going to get some fencing around the basketball courts, and, you know, a place to be able to build water bottles and, you know, just kind of beautify a little bit. But they're working on doing a track, like a walking, you know, around the whole park, you know. And there's some workout stations that's going to be in different spots around there. They're handicap accessible. This adds to the sports-themed park and ninja park that’s already there.
It’s going to be beautiful when it’s done. I live very close, right down the street. I grew up playing ball on those courts, so it means a lot to be a part of this project and what we’re doing for the community together.”
—Ali Smith
“The conversation about bringing soccer to the East Side of Bay City started seven years ago in a living room with the question, ‘How do we bring BASA to Baytown?’ 85% of the kids who play soccer with the Bay Area Soccer Association come from either the West Side of Bay City or Essexville. Very few come from the East Side, and we wanted to figure out how to make soccer more accessible to all the kids in Bay City.
I was at work one day at Michigan Sugar, talking about this idea with my boss at the time and former president and CEO, Mark Flegenheimer, and he said that his nephew works for the US Soccer Foundation, and part of what they do is come to towns and build outdoor soccer fields.
We walked down to his office and he handed me this little flyer he had on his desk about the US Soccer Foundation's mini-pitch program and that afternoon, I was on the phone with his nephew to learn about the program. It was exactly what we had envisioned.
That day, I called Tim Botzau from the Parks Department at the City and told him about BASA’s idea to build hard surface mini-pitches, and I asked him if there was a good place to do that.
He said, ‘Maplewood Park.’
Like a lot of folks, I wasn’t quite sure where that was, and he said it was right behind Baytown. I drove over there and met up with Tim. There were some pretty significant problems with the old Tennis Courts, but you could see how everything would lay out.
A few weeks later we launched the project, and I got a call from Ryan Tarrant, who was at the time, the President and CEO of the Bay Area Chamber.
‘Do you know Ali Smith?’ he said. ‘He’s leading the Minority Business Partnership for the Chamber, and they want to redo the basketball courts at Maplewood Park. You guys should talk and combine your projects.’
Long story short, that’s exactly what happened and this really incredible and unique partnership between BASA, the City of Bay City, the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Minority Business Partnership, and the United States Soccer Foundation was formed.
We all had a similar vision, so it made sense to partner. But what was so great about this was that we all understood that this wasn't just about building soccer fields and basketball courts—it was about redeveloping a neighborhood. It was community development.
The Maplewood Sports Complex project will be successful because these different partners had a shared vision and worked together. The bottom line is no one involved got hung up on worrying about who got the credit. Ali and the Chamber had an idea, BASA had an idea and teamed up. The City of Bay City loved it and jumped on board to help. The Kantzler Foundation, the Nickless Family Foundation, the Smith Foundation, the Gerstacker and Strosacker Foundations, the Bay Area Community Foundation, the Tri-Star Charitable Foundation, the NAACP, the men's philanthropy group, the list goes on and on of people who generously donated money for this and made the project possible.
They all asked the question, ‘Will the park be locked up and only used by BASA and Chamber?’
And the answer from the beginning always was, ‘No locks.’ This is a gift to the community and we want as many kids and families in Bay City using it as possible.
The project was just so unselfish and so collaborative, and because of that, the end result will be even more than we imagined. Along with the new basketball courts and soccer mini-pitches, there will be a 10-foot wide walking path with fitness stations, a new connection to the rail trail, a new playground. The project isn’t complete yet—we’re anticipating having a dedication ceremony next spring—but already we see kids out there every day playing.
It’s going to be the nicest park in Bay City because people worked together to give something to the community.”
—Rob Clark, Michigan Sugar and Bay Area Soccer Association
