SYRACUSE — Vega Field, once owned by the Wawasee School Corp., is on track to become the Syracuse Youth Athletic Complex this fall with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for April of 2013.

The Syracuse-Wawasee Park Foundation, Syracuse Parks, the Wawasee Kiwanis Club, Wawasee Youth Football and the town of Syracuse joined efforts to secure the property and transform it into an athletic complex sporting four baseball/softball fields and one football/multipurpose field.

The complex will allow local football, softball, baseball and soccer programs to utilize the fields for practice and competition. Previously, these organizations had to work with the school corporation’s sports’ schedules to share school facilities.

So far, the fundraising efforts have garnered $260,000 toward the $400,000 goal. Trees have been cleared, old buildings, ball fields and fencing removed and grass planted. The group’s latest fundraising event is a Walk-A-Thon on Saturday, May 12.

Participants are encouraged to have sponsors sign their pledge sheet. Pledge sheets can be picked up at the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce or the Syracuse Community Center. Walker registration must be returned by Saturday, May 5 to the Syracuse Community Center.

For Tammy Cotton, executive director of the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce, the project is not only the culmination of years of planning and work, it holds great sentimental value.

In the early 1990s, Vega Field consisted of a softball diamond, a track and a football field. The Wawasee School System used the area less and less, instead utilizing the newer facilities at the high school and the middle school.

Around the same time, brothers Chris and Chad Cotton formed a local PeeWee Football League and began using Vega Field. The program became a success and the brothers considered purchasing the field from the school system. Although those plans fell through, the program continued to grow.

In 1996, Tammy Cotton (then Tammy Brown) moved to the area from Cromwell.

“I was a single mom with four kids,” Cotton said. “I signed my oldest son for PeeWee football.”

With full-time work and little downtime with four active kids, Cotton said she had no intention of dating.

She met her son’s coach, Chris, and admired his dedication to the program.

“Here’s this nice guy with no kids of his own,” Cotton said. “But he took such a sincere interest in everyone else’s children. They were like his own kids. That was pretty attractive!”

When the program started up the following year, Cotton did something that required a lot of courage. She asked Chris out to dinner.

“My friend at work told me to just call him up and ask him out. I prayed that his answering machine would pick up — and it did,” Cotton laughed.

Chris didn’t answer the phone because he was on the way to pick up a date.

“He called right back and said yes,” Cotton said. “He had wanted to ask me out, too, but wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do because he was still my son’s coach.”

That first date was in November 1997. Tammy and Chris were engaged by January and married on October 17, 1998.

“That Saturday morning (of the wedding), we set up for PeeWee football like we did every Saturday morning,” Cotton said. “And the parents had decorated the bleachers with crepe paper!”

When Chris’ brother moved to Texas, Tammy took a greater role in helping Chris with the program. Years later, the two handed over the program to the Lakeland Youth Center. But when the center pulled out to join another league in 2006, Tammy and Chris again assumed the directorship.

That same year, the league stopped using Vega Field, instead opting to practice and compete at the middle school facilities in Milford and later at the Wawasee Middle School field.    

Then about a year and a half ago the Parks Department, the Pee Wee League and the Kiwanis Club got together with the town and purchased Vega Field from the school system.

Pacemaker Construction out of North Webster hopes to begin work on several outbuildings including a concession stand by June 1.

“Chris and I had talked a long time about doing this. Other organizations were also interested,” Cotton said. “The collaboration has been great and the community support has been awesome. We needed something to pull everyone together.”

The Wawasee Youth Football program, now part of the Marshall County Junior Football League, is hoping to play their last few games of the fall season at the new complex.

“This project means so much to us, and football means so much to Chris,” Cotton said. “He was the quarterback for Wawasee when the team went to state in 1987. And he was coaching when the team went to state in 2004.”

Chris is currently the offensive coordinator for Wawasee High School

“We have quite a few kids who grew up playing on this field wanting to come back and help coach and be a part of the program,” Cotton said.