March 1, 2026
Hanford Insider: Big City Council Updates, Youth Athletic Complex Ribbon Cutting, and a SPHS Valley Championship!
Send me a text and give me feedback on this episode! A fresh ribbon, the scent of tri-tip, and a packed crowd set the scene for a milestone day at the Hanford Youth Athletic Complex. We walk the grounds with city leaders and community voices to unpack a $1.3M renovation that delivers where families feel it most: a modern concession building, tripled women’s restroom capacity, doubled men’s capacity, safer ADA access with concrete under the bleachers, and lighting checks across a dozen diamond...
Send me a text and give me feedback on this episode!
A fresh ribbon, the scent of tri-tip, and a packed crowd set the scene for a milestone day at the Hanford Youth Athletic Complex. We walk the grounds with city leaders and community voices to unpack a $1.3M renovation that delivers where families feel it most: a modern concession building, tripled women’s restroom capacity, doubled men’s capacity, safer ADA access with concrete under the bleachers, and lighting checks across a dozen diamonds. The result isn’t just a better ballpark—it’s a stronger invitation for regional tournaments, including a newly secured Cal Ripken 10U state event that brings pride and visitors to town.
We zoom out to citywide moves shaping Hanford’s next chapter. The council is advancing a centrally located public safety building near Seventh and Harris, funded by Measure H, now envisioned as a comprehensive hub for police, fire, emergency operations, training, fueling, evidence storage, and communications with fully electric infrastructure. We also explore the debate over smaller-lot single-family development standards as the city balances attainable housing with neighborhood quality. Residents get clear pathways to weigh in with their City Councilperson.
Then, the highlight reel: Sierra Pacific girls basketball claims a second straight Division II section title with unselfish play and a battle-tested schedule, earning a two-seed for state and home-court energy. We round up early baseball and softball results for Hanford High, Hanford West, and Sierra Pacific, and hear from Coach Victor Chavarin Jr about culture, grit, and why you shouldn’t miss Golden Bear basketball.
Come for the upgrades, stay for the community heartbeat—leaders, coaches, and neighbors building spaces where kids thrive and Hanford shines. If this resonated, tap follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so more locals can find the show. Your voice keeps Hanford talking.
You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
Thank you for supporting the show!
00:02 - Ballpark Renovations Preview
01:06 - City Council Hot Topics
03:53 - Community Calendar Highlights
05:39 - On-Site: Leaders At The Complex
09:28 - Mayor And HYB President Reactions
12:28 - Upgrades Deep Dive With Parks Director
17:43 - Local Sports Roundup
20:18 - Coach Chavarin On Back-To-Back Titles
24:36 - How To Support And Stay Connected
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On this episode of the Hanford Insider, we'll head out to the ballpark to hear from city leaders about the great renovations that have been completed at the Hanford Youth Athletic Complex just in time for Little League opening day.
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Rob will give you a look at some of this week's community events, and I'll be back with your sports report to let you know which local team brought home a section title last week.
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This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, March 2nd.
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From downtown history to local voices shaping our future, this is where Hanford talks.
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Let's get into it.
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In community news this week, we'll start with the Hanford City Council.
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We didn't get a postmeeting wrap-up video from the last meeting, but one of the big items for discussion was regarding single family residential development standards.
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More and more, developers are proposing neighborhoods with smaller houses on smaller lot sizes.
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City staff were asking for the council for direction on this matter.
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What do you think?
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Should Hanford allow this type of development?
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Contact your city council member and tell them what you think.
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The council will meet again this Tuesday.
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Some of the items on the agenda include a badge penning ceremony, an oath of office for officers Brandon Barrera, Efra Nieto, Sean Snodgrass, Nancy Gallegos, and Francisco Seviano.
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They'll be looking at a historical resources permit for Superior Dairy to modernize their exterior as part of the remodeling project, which will begin soon.
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They'll also be approving a contract of Oasis Pool and Spa to complete repairs to the plunge.
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The exciting news is that the city has narrowed down a list of possible sites and will be looking for approval to purchase the property on the southeast corner of Seventh Harris, all the way down to Brown Street, for the new public safety building that citizens voted for last year with Measure H.
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For reference, this will be directly across from the new cart transit facility.
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This building is closer to the center of town than any of the other properties that they looked at and will make a fine addition to the downtown east corridor.
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Originally envisioned as solely an administrative building, the project has grown into a comprehensive facility that will house police, fire, and emergency operations along with multiple specialized amenities.
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The design will include an emergency operations center, training facilities, fueling station, evidence storage, a communications tower, and a fully electric infrastructure.
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It will also feature paging, public broadcast, and radio repeating systems.
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This is just the first step in the process, though.
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The project is scheduled for completion in the next three to five years as Measure H funds become available.
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We'll have Hanford City Manager Chris Tavarres on the show next week to talk about this topic and a few others.
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If you have a question for Mr.
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Tavares that you'd like for me to ask, send it to me at HanfordInsider at gmail.com before Thursday, and I'll see if I can get an answer for you.
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Don't forget, if you can't make it to the City Council meeting in person, you can watch the meeting stream live on the city's website at www.hanford.city.
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Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar.
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The Hanford High, Hanford West High, and Sierra Pacific High School Bands will be presenting a joint concert on Wednesday, March 4th in the Presentation Center beginning at 6 p.m.
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The Carnegie Museum of Kings County's 2026 exhibition, Building Kings County, is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
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The museum is located at 109 East 8th Street in downtown Hanford.
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Learn more at Carnegie Museum of Kingscounty.org.
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The Kings Players production of the Vultures opens this Friday, March 6th.
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For more information, visit Kingsplayers.org.
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On Saturday, March 7th, there'll be a trading card show at the Civic Auditorium.
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The Sro Optimus Club Dream It Viet Conference will also be held at Hanford West High School on Saturday.
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And on Saturday night, the Hanford Multicultural Theater Company's Marionette show, The Bitter Couple, will be performed at 5 p.m.
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at the Little Brick Theater.
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If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together.
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Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com.
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Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events.
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It's the most comprehensive community calendar available.
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And we have Councilman Travis Payton with us here today.
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And uh Travis, uh, this is amazing.
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That this turned out great.
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This is amazing.
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I just see all the the youth in our community here ready for the opening day of our um the baseball season.
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It has been a journey to get to this point.
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There's been a lot of over a couple of years to finally get to a finished product with a new concession stand, new places that is ADA accessible.
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It's been awesome.
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I remember my first year playing baseball was the first year that the Bob Hill Sports Complex opened.
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And that was, you know, many decades ago, but it was it's so nice to see this new upgrade, new restrooms, new concession stand, and a lot of happy and smiling faces.
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And now we have Vice Mayor Nancy House.
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Nancy, how do you look at these smiling faces on these people?
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They are so excited for this new complex.
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I'm also I share in their excitement, and this is very exciting.
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I love that we have a new beautiful snack shack.
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I like to call it a snack shack.
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And the addition of bathrooms upgrade sounds amazing to me.
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I hear that we have three times the amount of women's bathrooms than we had prior.
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So that's always a win.
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But the main thing is I feel like when you get to participate in whether it's school or youth athletic sports, and you have a nice facility, there's a lot of pride that goes along with that.
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And I hope that the children feel that pride.
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And I hope that the adults and the parents and everybody, the coaches, and of course, um, Hanford Youth Baseball, I hope they feel that pride because I know that I'm feeling that pride today.
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It's beautiful.
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Um, this was already in the works long before I was ever elected as a council member.
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So I definitely don't feel as though I'm taking any credit for it today, but I am here to share in the excitement and the experience.
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And I'm a little bummed that my son decided not to play this year, but I know plenty of other kids, so I'll probably pop in and visit the Snack Shack.
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They have tri-tip sandwiches today that smelled pretty darn good.
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So yeah, it's gonna be a great day.
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There's a lot of vendors out here.
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I'm excited to check all that out.
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That's wonderful.
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Thank you for joining us.
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Thank you.
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With us now is City Manager Chris Tavares.
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Welcome to the show, Chris.
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Thank you.
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Um, excited to be here today.
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The smell of baseball's in the air and uh just a lot of appreciation to the city staff that have been involved with uh this project over the last year or so.
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Uh took a lot of hands to get this really kicked off and um a lot of hard work.
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Uh last few weeks has been a flurry of activity, uh, but I couldn't be more proud of all the departments coming together and uh really uh putting this together for the community.
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Um, this will be a generational impact, and I just love to see the smiles on faces, uh, families gathering, and um again, just lots of appreciation for the hard work out there.
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Fantastic.
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Thank you, Chris.
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Thank you.
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Well, there's a lot of happy faces here today, but I know that the mayor of Hanford, Mark Kyrus, is especially pleased with the turnout today and how this ballpark looks.
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Yeah, Rob, this place looks simply amazing.
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I I will tell you that in no small part, Hanford Youth Baseball just does a wonderful job.
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And you know, having the facility ready for this opening day.
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Um, the fields look wonderful.
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I mean, I know they put a lot of time and effort and sweat and equity in here, and and it's it's proven once again.
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I mean, it's absolutely beautiful.
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Fantastic.
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Thank you, Mark.
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Thank you.
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Well, it's great to be here with Joe Britton, who is the president of Hanford Youth Baseball.
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Joe, this is a fantastic day for the city of Hanford and the kids, right?
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It's a beautiful day, Mr.
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Bentley.
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Thank you for having me.
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Uh, we couldn't be happier with the weather we have out here, um, all of the community members that are out here for vendors and the celebration we're having today.
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Um, it's just turning out to be a perfect day so far.
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So you've got an exciting season lined up.
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Can you kind of give us an idea of how long the season goes, how many teams you have, that kind of info?
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We're gonna kick off today, February 28th.
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We have our first game is gonna be played today, and we have games scheduled all the way through mid-May.
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We have 53 teams out here, and we 53 teams.
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We have 53 teams and over 300 games scheduled.
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Oh, and uh, so you run through the spring months, uh, March, April, May, and then uh when does your season wind down?
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And what does postseason tournaments or anything like that look like?
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Yeah, we have games all the way through mid-May, and then immediately after that, we have all-star season that takes place, and that lasts for about a month.
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So we have uh all-stars running through June this year, and if our teams do well, they could play all the way into August.
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Um, but a bit of good news, we did sign a contract with Cal Ripkin um to host the state tournament out here for the 10-year-olds, and that will be in in late to mid-June.
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That's fantastic.
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Yeah, with this new facility, uh, I would imagine it would draw, start to draw some of the turn regional tournaments.
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Yeah, and with the amount of work that our board members do, they keep this place beautiful.
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It is it's really nice, and we're creating it a top top-notch facility for people to come out here and just really enjoy a game of baseball.
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Well, that's great.
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Well, have a great season, Joe.
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Congratulations.
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I appreciate you.
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Thank you for your time.
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And finally, we have with us Brad Albert, who is the director of parks and community services in Hanford.
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And uh, Brad, it was such a great morning for Hanford, wasn't it?
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It it it really was.
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Beautiful day, opening day.
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Um, we had a chance to do a ceremonial ribbon cutting this morning, and um a lot of people came out, and it it's a great day in Hanford.
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Yeah, so I understand some of the people that came out included uh the family of Bob Hill.
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As many of you know, the complex was named after Bob Hill, and uh his family participated in the ribbon cutting.
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Uh, share with us a little bit about that.
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Yeah, so the Hill family came out um in big numbers.
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Chris Hill uh spoke.
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Um, Mrs.
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Hill, um, Bob Hill's wife was present.
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She actually um I think had the scissors when we cut the ribbon.
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Um, in addition, um they brought several old Sentinel news articles from the groundbreaking, the original groundbreaking, and actually uh a brick from the old concession building.
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Oh, wow.
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Uh and that's on a table just to the left of the concession stand.
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So it was really great to have that family out.
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You know, Bob Hill was instrumental in the beginning of the whole um facility.
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Yeah, definitely.
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I I uh I did not play uh baseball at that complex.
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I played when it was uh on 11th Avenue there across from Woodrow Wilson and then also at the Harris Street ballpark.
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But my son uh participated in baseball there at the at the youth athletic complex.
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So you mentioned the concession stand earlier.
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Uh let's get into a little bit of the upgrades, uh fields, concessions, restrooms, uh, lighting.
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What what can people look forward to?
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Wow, this project scope was pretty big.
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It ended up coming at about 1.3 million for the entire project that was um funded through the ARPA funding and then council appropriation um of that money.
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The project had been on the books for a long time.
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Uh and and you know, just due to lack of funding, we could never quite get there.
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So we were lucky to be able to do that.
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So with that um funding, we were able to remove the old concession stand, outdated in many ways.
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We replaced it with a prefabricated single-story structure.
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Um, and what that did, we were able to triple the capacity in the girls' restroom and double the capacity in the boys', as well as all brand new concession equipment, ovens, refrigerators, freezers.
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Pepsi's got a new machine in, so all brand new um equipment on the inside um of that.
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In addition to the building, completely regraded and took all the old asphalt out, put new asphalt on the drive approaches, actually, uh an upgrade that council approved was actually removing asphalt and replacing it with cement under the bleachers, which really helps with ADA accessibility and just it just makes it a much more pleasant and safe um way for folks to get you know in and out of the bleachers and and move through through the facility, which again was was much needed.
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Yeah, I noticed that.
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I saw several people go by in wheelchairs, and I was just kind of like thinking, oh, they're gonna like this.
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They're not gonna be rolling rolling down the hill, as it were.
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Yeah, it it uh there was uh there was some bump there for a while, but hey, we got them all cleaned up, you know, all the storage containers um were were were moved, new asphalt underneath, and moved back.
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So they now sit on new asphalt.
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That's great.
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And I understand you've made some improvements in the fields and lighting and such.
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Yeah, we've we've we went through fairly recently, checked all the lighting actually in the entire facility.
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So that's the four Bob Hill baseball fields, um, Rotary Field, and then the basin, because Hanford Youth Baseball uses you know all 12 of those diamonds in season.
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So we're able to go through and do that.
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Um, and so everything um is working, and so we're real proud about that, and really to you know create a uh a facility and an environment um that the kids and their families deserve.
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Well, certainly I I noticed uh there's still a few things to be tidied up, but it was ready for opening day, and that's what that's what counts uh seasons, seasons off to a great start.
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And yeah, I wanted to ask you when I was talking to Joe about the status of the league and everything, he told me that these upgrades actually they've applied to host several tournaments now that the yeah that this complex can actually host tournaments.
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Yeah, so that was one of the things, you know, they do Cal Ripkin regionals, and I think now that we've got you know the new project almost done, pretty close, that they'll have that ability in late May, June to be able to invite folks to come to regional tournaments, which you know typically HYB would have to travel, and now we can bring them the facility, is is definitely ready now for that level of competition.
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Definitely.
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Hey Brad, uh I won't keep you much longer.
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And I know we're gonna have you back on the show here in a few weeks to talk about the stuff coming up in the spring.
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And uh we've got all the spring day camps, that's all that advertised.
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You also have uh we still have to get together and talk about the winter wonderland wrap-up.
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Uh yeah, but what we're really interested in hearing uh next time we have you on is about the upgrades at the plunge.
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So we look forward to having you always on the show.
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Always look forward to having you on the show, and we thank you for your enthusiasm and thank you for all that you do for the youth of Hanford.
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Well, thank you, Rob.
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It's a pleasure, always a pleasure speaking with you, and hope you're having a great day out there.
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We're so excited for the young athletes in Hanford.
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And speaking of young athletes, Eric has a great recap of this week's high school sports.
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And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.
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For the second year in a row, the Sierra Pacific girls basketball team took the floor at Stelland Arena and brought home a Division II section title, taking down the one-seed Bakersfield Christians 64 to 48 on Friday.
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This year, defending their crown as a seven seed, it was a game that the Golden Bears had in control the whole way, with five different players scoring in double figures.
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The Lady Bears have seemingly hit their stride at the right time, having won eight in a row and twelve of their last thirteen with state playoffs on the horizon.
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Though the road to a section title played out differently this year as a seven seed, the journey to a state title this year will start on a similar path as the Golden Bears were selected as a two seed yet again this season and will host 15 seed Heritage on Tuesday at 7 PM.
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Should they advance, they'll host the winner of Chico versus Folsom on Thursday.
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Make sure you stay tuned until the end of this segment, where we'll talk to head coach Victor Chavarin Jr.
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about the team's section title run and gearing up for state playoffs.
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Now let's wrap up the rest of the winter sports as the Sierra Pacific girls' soccer team's quest for a Division IV section title fell just short in heartbreaking fashion last week, as one seed Fresno Christian defeated the Golden Bears 5-4 on penalty kicks in the championship.
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Sierra Pacific finishes their season 11-9-5 overall.
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Now for the Spring Sports out to baseball, where it is a 3-0 start to the season for the Hanford West baseball team, beating Arosi 12-0 in their season opener before taking both games of a doubleheader from Dos Palos.
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The Hanford High Baseball team stands at 1-1 after beating Central East 7-1 in their season opener before falling to Stockdale.
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And the Sierra Pacific baseball team is off to an 0-3 start, falling to Garces and Selma before an extra innings loss to San Joaquin Memorial.
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In softball action, the Hanford West softball team is off to a 2-1 start, dropping their season opener to Redwood, then bouncing back with a 15-5 win over Dinuba and an 11-0 win over Tulary Western.
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The Hanford High softball team is 1-0 to start their year after taking down Hoover 13-1 on Friday.
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And the Sierra Pacific softball team is off to an 0-1 start after dropping their season opener to Sanger West.
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Now, let's hear from the head coach of the back-to-back section champion, Sierra Pacific Girls basketball team, Victor Chavarin Jr.
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Eric Bentley here.
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Obviously, uh thanks for taking the time to join us.
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So really appreciate that.
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Just wanted to, you know, start real quick going back to last Friday.
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You know, you guys and your team were able to go back to back.
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Just kind of walk us through that experience of for the second time being able to accomplish that feat.
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You know, it it's something that um we we really cherished.
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We we felt that we were the best team in the division to bracket before uh seatings came out.
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Um and so we knew that we just have to grind it out and we just be some we would just have to be some Road Warriors and be ready to fight every game and not take anything for granted.
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The experience of last year was really great, but we made sure that once we got our championship rings during the summer that last year was last year, this year's this year, and we have to prove ourselves all over again.
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You know, you kind of mentioned the grit.
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You guys played a very tough non-league schedule, went over to Hawaii again, played some tournament games.
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How did that factor into being able to get it done again?
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And how can you use that going into state playoffs?
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Yeah, uh looking at the state bracket, we played both the number one seeds in the north and south of Division I for the state bracket.
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We played uh teams that are in the open division stick for the state bracket.
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Um, we weren't afraid to play anybody this season, especially to start it.
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And yeah, some of the scores weren't pretty, and and it hurts to start this season with a with a couple losses, but that ironed us out, that that showed us what we can work on, and that made us a better team.
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And and once we flipped the script to gen.
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The results have kind of played out similar to last year as far as winning a section title, getting a two-seed in the state playoff bracket.
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Tell us some of the differences that you've seen from this year's team compared to last year's team.
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You know, I I will always love my first team for sure, but but this team's really special and in that they look out for one another in in all aspects.
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It's a very unselfish basketball.
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You look at the Valley Championship uh on from Friday night, and uh all five of my starters were were in double digits, and it was because we moved the ball.
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And so Bakerstal Christian struggled on being able to stop any one person because we would just pass it to the next one who was open.
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And so this team is very unselfish and very close and become a tight family.
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So you guys will get some home state playoff games being the two seed.
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Do you got a message to the fans who, you know, have obviously been out supporting you, but maybe those that haven't seen this team this year, kind of what to expect and why they should come out to support this team.
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You know, I always say never miss Golden Bear basketball if you can help it.
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Um we we had some great uh road trips, but now we get to host games at home, and so uh we hope to see uh everybody there on Tuesday night because we need a loud atmosphere to show heritage uh what Hanford's about.
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The only thing I'll add is Sierra Pacific's a great community within itself, but Friday night at Celland, I saw people from all over Hanford.
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And so Hanford's a basketball town, and Hanford has our back.
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Um and so we're we're happy to be able to represent Hanford and bring in a section championship home, and hopefully we're gonna bring a state championship home too.
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As always, if you have a score report or a team update for any team in any sport at any level, you can let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com.
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I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.
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And that's all the time we have for this week's show.
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