{"id":44549,"date":"2021-09-23T22:47:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T04:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/englehart-field-in-cortez-is-brought-back-to-life\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:20:11","slug":"englehart-field-in-cortez-is-brought-back-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/englehart-field-in-cortez-is-brought-back-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Englehart Field in Cortez is brought back to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Englehart
Englehart Field at the Cortez Middle School was recently restored by parents. It is the home field of the Montezuma-Cortez High School girls softball team, which returned to the field on Monday in a game against Durango. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The historic Englehart Field has been revived at Cortez Middle School.<\/p>\n

The baseball field fell into disrepair and was closed several years ago after a windstorm blew down a light pole.<\/p>\n

The diamond is the home field of the Montezuma-Cortez High School softball team, which moved its games to the Cortez Softball Complex south of Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cA volunteer effort from parents and funding from the school board brought the field back. It looks fantastic,\u201d said volunteer Susan Likes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince May, we have been pulling weeds, moving dirt, painting and putting in the work,\u201d Likes said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez varsity and junior varsity teams resumed play at the field on Monday against rival Durango High School. The Panthers varsity team fell 9-2, but the JV team won 21-5.<\/p>\n

\"Englehart
Englehart Field at the Cortez Middle School was rededicated Monday after a restoration project. It is the home field of the Montezuma-Cortez High School girls softball team. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 contributed $28,000 toward the field improvements.<\/p>\n

A core group of parents, including Likes, Randy Carver and Doug LaMunyon, contributed hundreds of hours toward the effort. Likes\u2019 daughter, Lizzie Likes, and Randy Carter\u2019s daughter Emily Carver, play on the varsity team.<\/p>\n

New fencing was installed for the outfield and dugouts. Three truckloads of infield dirt was brought in from the Front Range. New sod was laid, and the third base area was leveled with topsoil. Fresh layers of paint were added to the dugout and buildings, and the concessions and scoring boxes were fixed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls are thrilled to have their home field back,\u201d Likes said.<\/p>\n

The field was named after Jim Englehart, who coached baseball for 20 years at Montezuma-Cortez High School, from 1957 to 1977, said his wife, Mary.<\/p>\n

He also coached football, girls basketball, taught weightlifting, and was the school athletic director. Englehart was a mechanical and architectural drawing teacher at the school for 32 years, and retired in 1989. He died in 2015.<\/p>\n

Seeing the field come back to life is special for the family, Mary Englehart said in a phone interview. It was dedicated in his name in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad it is being used again. Jim was so proud of that field, and of this community. We saw a lot of baseball games there. I was the scorekeeper,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Englehart Field was the main baseball diamond in the area for decades before Cortez Recreation Center fields were built, she said.<\/p>\n

Englehart\u2019s children played on the field as well and were coached by their dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartwarming to see it be restored. He was very well liked,\u201d said his son Richard Englehart, who is the deputy county manager for Pitkin County. \u201cWe\u2019re so grateful for the community effort to keep it alive. We had some memorable games there. Dad was always out there working on the field during the baseball seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

A popular family story was Englehart\u2019s legendary winning record against rival Durango Demons in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball is in our blood, and it all started at that field in Cortez,\u201d Mary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball is in our blood, and it all started at that field in Cortez,\u201d Mary Englehart said.<\/p>\n

Jim Englehart played college baseball at Western State and in the military. His son Richard played baseball for Mesa State, and so did his sons.<\/p>\n

The next game at Englehart Field is Friday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. for a doubleheader against Delta.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montezuma-Cortez High School plays first game on restored field against rival Durango <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[470,21,28,36,29,596],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-baseball","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-softball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86137,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44549\/revisions\/86137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44549"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}