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The ball field at Rivermont School Rockbridge in Fairfield will officially be named and dedicated this Saturday in honor of the late Jerry Mace, a longtime teacher and coach at Rockbridge High School.
The ceremony, which will start at 11 a.m. at the school, located at 1200 Sterrett Rd., will also include a rededication of the dugouts in honor of the late Todd Bare, who was active in sports in the mid-1980s. Bare played basketball and baseball at RHS before he was killed in a farming accident on Easter break in 1986, when he was still in high school. Plaques will be on display for both Mace and Bare.
The event will include various speeches, a benediction and closings, followed by a reception and storytime with cake. The Rockbridge Area Recreation Organization, which is organizing the events, will then have a baseball game at 12:15 p.m., and a softball game will follow at 1:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
RARO will provide hot dogs, hamburgers and drinks. Mountain View Barbecue will provide barbecue, nachos, fries and drinks.
There will also be music and a raffle, with funds being raised to help impoverished athletes purchase equipment to play sports, and also to assist with field needs. Joey Jones, chairman of the RARO board, said RARO plans to raise thousands of dollars before using the interest on those funds.
Jones noted that the funds will go toward helping the community, as Mace would have wanted.
A longtime Fairfield resident, Mace taught Spanish, government and U.S. history and coached baseball, track, basketball and football at Rockbridge High School. He coached for 25 years and taught in the Rockbridge County schools for 31 years, and he was a member of Spring Valley Baptist Church and the Fairfield Ruritans. Mace, a graduate of Washington and Lee University, died in 2017.
Jones noted that Mace was unselfish and wore No. 19 “because he always put 18 other players in front of himself.”
