GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- A new ballpark that was finished just five months ago will soon house five different softball champions.
"That's a champion right here," Oakfield High School parent Ed Flury said while embracing his daughter, who had just won the Division 5 state title.
And it only took one game for Vanessa Flury to become the queen of King Park.
"After having nothing last year and coming to win a state championship this year, I gotta say it's a good experience for the girls to come up to Green Bay," Ed said.
High school teams from across Wisconsin are squaring off in the WIAA State Tournament at UWGB's new softball stadium, King Park. It's a place the Flurys and state champions like Oakfield High will remember forever.
"I got to say, this is a very nice facility you guys got up here," Ed said. "It's good atmosphere."
The $1.5 million stadium was finished in February and UWGB says its bells and whistles attracted state softball tournament organizers.
"Over here on the far East Side, a lot of people don't come over this way," Associate Athletic Director Joey Daniels said. "They stop at Lambeau Field, see what you gotta see and then get out of town."
King Park is a fully turf field, the only one of its kind in UWGB's athletic conference, the Horizon League.
"It's free advertising, really, for the people that are making these long trips and [they] check out the campus and hopefully [become] prospective students down the road," Daniels said.
And some players can attest.
"Being in a place that you know a really good school plays -- Green Bay is a really good softball school -- and it's just cool to share that field with them," Sun Prairie softball player Ellie Rademacher said.
King Park's facilities are a draw for Flury, but as a parent, that's not what makes the stadium special.
"Seeing this one right here go out with a championship," he said with his daughter crying tears of joy in his arms. "Right here. That's what it's about right here."
