Local leaders and businesses are rallying around a plan to restore a 15-acre park with baseball, soccer, a playground and more.
SEYMOUR, Tenn. (Smokies.LIVE Adventure Center) — There’s a baseball field, a soccer field, a playground and a concession building here — but much of this Seymour park has seen better days.
Now, a group of local community members is hoping to change that.
The goal is simple: bring the park back to life and make it a place where families can gather, kids can play and generations of Seymour residents can create new memories.
Jordan Fry, owner of TriStar Sports, is one of the people behind the effort.
“We’re just hoping to bring the park back to where it can be useful again,” Fry said. “It doesn’t have to be the biggest park, but a lot of people grew up playing soccer here, and there’s a meaningful use for the park.”
Fry knows the importance of youth sports. Through TriStar Sports, he organizes basketball, softball and baseball tournaments and works with Seymour schools.
And this project is personal.
Fry says his wife teaches in Seymour, their children are going through the local schools, and the family is invested in the community.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Fry said. “We just want to improve the community where we can.”
🏟️ A Vision for the Future
The plan calls for improvements across the roughly 15-acre property.
That could include:
- Upgraded baseball fields
- A multi-purpose field for soccer, lacrosse and other sports
- A new and improved playground
- Improvements to the pavilion
- Upgrades to existing park facilities
- Improvements to the concessions building
Paul Danis, president of LiveIt Ministries, says the organization has been working with members of the community to develop a vision for the property.
“We just felt it could use a bit of sprucing up,” Danis said.
But turning that vision into reality will take more than a plan.
🤝 Community Support Needed
Organizers say they will need financial backing, grants, volunteers and community support to make the improvements happen.
“We’re going to need financial backing, and we’re going to need really community support,” Danis said.
LiveIt Ministries already works with volunteers from churches and businesses, and Danis says the park could become another opportunity to bring people together.
The ministry also plans to open a county connector road near the park, giving the property additional access.
❤️ A Park Built Around Community
The vision isn’t necessarily to create the biggest sports complex in the region.
It’s about taking a park that already has meaning to Seymour and giving it another chance.
A place where kids can learn to play baseball.
Where families can watch a soccer game.
Where neighbors can gather at the pavilion.
And where people who grew up playing here can bring their own children back.
“We just want to improve the community where we can,” Fry said.
Now, the organizers are hoping Seymour will rally around the idea and help turn an aging park into a place the entire community can be proud of once again.
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