Worth County set to open new baseball/softball complex

SYLVESTER — For 115 years, baseball in Worth County had a home address.
It was grass and Georgia dust and memory.
It was Pope Park.

On Monday afternoon, that address changes — and so does the sense of expectation that comes with it.

The Worth County Rams will open their season, and a new era, at a brand-new baseball and softball complex with turf fields, modern lighting and amenities that would have seemed unimaginable when the first games were played at Pope Park more than a century ago.

Junior varsity will christen the field at 4 p.m. Varsity will follow against Schley County. History will be watching, even if it’s no longer leaning on a chain-link fence at the old park.

“It’s kind of wild,” said Worth County head coach Will Smith. “We’re going from having the oldest baseball field in the state to the newest.”

Smith, now in his 25th year coaching baseball in Sylvester, understands what is being left behind. He coached generations of Rams on a field that didn’t just host games — it remembered them. But as much as Pope Park mattered, Smith said the move is about what comes next.

“This is much bigger than just the baseball team or a coach,” Smith said. “It’s for our students and our entire community. The softball program benefits. Everybody benefits. This is a commitment to our kids.”

It’s also a commitment being met by a team capable of honoring it.

Worth County opens the 2026 season returning a strong core from a 22-11 squad a year ago. Among the returning players are Avery Kilcrease, Hayden Short, Luke Rogers, Colby Griffis, and Brady Weaver — a group Smith believes gives the Rams both experience and stability as they break in a new home. The Rams have reached the Sweet Sixteen three years running, including two trips to the Elite Eight.

There’s something else, too.

Several members of the baseball roster were also part of Worth County’s state championship football team, and Smith hopes that championship experience brings an edge with it. Weaver, Griffis, Short, Lyndon Worthy, Garrett Brooks, and Brodey Hancock all played key roles in that title run.

“Those guys should have an extra bit of expectation and attitude after winning a state championship,” Smith said. “Hopefully that attitude carries on to the baseball field.”

If it does, the timing feels appropriate.

The new complex has been years in the making, shaped by careful planning and patient budgeting rather than shortcuts. Smith said conversations accelerated after Hurricane Michael swept through southwest Georgia in 2018, and momentum grew when Superintendent Nehemiah Cummings emphasized long-term facility upgrades.

What emerged is not simply a field, but a statement.

“The turf, the lighting, the sound system — it’s all the best,” Smith said. “The concession stand is incredible. Our board of education went all out. This is top-notch. The proof is in the pudding — it shows Superintendent Cummings and CFO/assistant superintendent Seth Freeman are committed to the students and the community of Worth County.”

When the Rams take the field, they’ll do so on one of only five turf baseball fields at high schools in southwest Georgia, joining Lee County, Hawkinsville, Lowndes and Valdosta. Two years ago, Worth County’s own postseason run helped push the conversation forward when the Rams reached the Elite Eight and played on turf in Atlanta.

“That was eye-opening,” Smith said. “A lot of schools in north Georgia are already on turf. Our kids play on turf with travel ball. Everything is headed this way.”

Not everything is finished. Locker rooms and an indoor hitting facility down the left-field line remain under construction, with an official ribbon-cutting planned for later in February when the final pieces are complete.

Still, Monday matters.

It’s the first pitch in a new place —
and the first chance for a new group of Rams to define it.

Pope Park will always have its ghosts.
This field, with this team, is ready to start making its own.