PROFILE pus transitioned to a lot of artificial turf. My experience with that led me in February of 2025 to the job I have now at Sandhills Global Youth Complex, where I’ m in charge of everything on site when it comes to buildings, grounds and field management.
SFM: What can you tell us about Sandhills Global Youth Complex and your fields / facilities? Felix: I don’ t mean to sound cliche, but it’ s almost like“ if you build it, they will come.” We were sold out this year— in our first year. We’ ve already hosted more than 2,600 games this year, and people have come from throughout the country for youth tournaments at our facility. We have the ability to play on any given day, from 8 a. m. until 10 p. m., and can provide consistent field conditions. We have eight fields, and they are all Sprinturf artificial turf.
Fields 1 through 4 are a traditional wheel arrangement with standard 300-foot fences down the line, and 325 feet to center. We have multiple base lengths and can do baseball at 60, 70, 80 and 90 feet and softball at 60 feet. We have portable mounds for every field and we have portable fences. It takes us 25 to 30 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to tear down. We can do fences at 225 feet for softball and 10-U baseball, and we’ ve done 260 feet for 11-U and 275 feet for 12-U. We can adapt at any time for either sport and any age group.
Our own Sandhills league runs Monday through Thursday throughout most of the spring and summer, Legion baseball, Babe Ruth baseball, and we have two different fall leagues, as well as a softball fall league and weekend tournaments.
Field 5 is a full-sized college / pro field reserved for the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Fields 6 and 7 are the home softball and baseball fields for the University of Nebraska, Wesleyan, a local Division III school. Those fields have grandstands and professional-quality dugouts. But if they’ re not playing, we use those fields for our tournaments. We play anything from 11-U baseball and down on Field 6 because, as a regulation softball field, it’ s a one of our smaller fields. A lot of the championships for our tournaments are on Field 7, because it’ s a full-sized field.
Field 8 is only a 100-foot-fence field and is reserved for special needs athletes and people with disabilities. The dugouts and fences are extra wide, and every transition is smooth so you can wheel wheelchairs from the
sportsfieldmanagementonline. com December 2025 | SportsField Management
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