It has been 23 years since St. Stephen sports enthusiast Brian Belyea died in a tragic car crash.
Months after the 2001 crash, a memorial co-ed softball tournament was launched in his honour.
But Belyea’s family wanted to do more to keep his memory alive and to help grow the sport in the community.
They have spent the past few years refurbishing the old Fan 2 field located behind St. Stephen High School.
“It was a grown-over field, more or less, so we were starting from scratch,” said Tyler Belyea, Brian’s nephew.
“Everything down to cutting the grass to re-doing the ground. There was no fencing or anything like that.”
The Belyea family started the project in 2019 but faced a number of delays caused by weather and COVID-19.
Over the past two summers, Belyea said they have made great progress restoring the field to a playable space.
“I think he would be overjoyed and proud, shocked for sure is a word that comes to my mind,” Belyea said of his uncle. “He left us all too early at 23 years old.”
Belyea said the refurbished field will be a big benefit to their annual tournament, which has given back around $60,000 to local youth and sport-related support programs, including high school scholarships.
In addition, he believes the new field space will help the community as a whole by allowing the sport of softball to grow.
“We have a great girls’ program and high school ball. McGeachy Field, being one of the main fields that gets used, our field is a complete replica of it, so it creates a little complex down behind the high school.
“I envision other tournaments being played, I envision growth in the female softball program maybe the return of the men’s softball league and it’d be great to see a women or a co-ed league to start. It all makes it easier when you have two fields in one section for double the games.”
The Brian Belyea Memorial Ball Park will officially open at 7 p.m. Friday during the annual Brian Belyea Memorial Co-Ed Softball Tournament. Tournament action takes place on Friday and Saturday.
