Some local softball coaches, players and their parents are ready to hear a home plate umpire say those long-awaited words at Warner Park this weekend: “Play ball!”

Although some work remains to be done, the historic softball facility will be open for play this weekend for the first time in a year when Dave Fannin brings his Gold Diamond National Exposure Tournament for college coaches to Chattanooga.

Games will be played on five fields besides Frost Stadium. Play begins today at 2 p.m. The last games are scheduled to start Sunday at 1:15 p.m.

Greta Hayes, Chattanooga’s assistant director of parks, said although the concession stand and restrooms are not complete, there will be portable temporary substitutes to accommodate patrons this weekend. She recommends entering the park on the Third Street side where there is greater room for parking.

“We still have a few things that need to be done,” Hayes said. “This whole summer is going to be a learning process for what needs to be done.”

The renovation project is expected to be completed in time for a grand reopening ceremony July 11.

Fannin coached baseball at Florida State University from 1981 to ’84, but after getting married and having daughters, he directed his attention toward softball. As coach of the Tallahassee Bullets, Fannin saw a need for tournaments that would cater to college coaches.

He now holds two per year in Kissimmee, Fla., and has the same plans for Chattanooga. The second will be Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Forty-one teams from Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Oklahoma are entered this week in 18-under Gold, 18-under A and 16-under A age groups. Fannin said there will be some crossover of 18-under teams playing 16-under teams, but scouting has been done to try to prevent mismatches.

Each team is guaranteed to play six games, including one in Frost Stadium. No game will exceed 90 minutes.

“You stay on schedule that way,” Fannin said. “Everybody’s happy. You play to win, but this is not all about winning and losing. It’s about getting seen by college coaches.”

The 18-under A Rampage are among the local entrants. Coach Richard Millwood said his team played in eight exposure tournaments last summer, ranging from North Carolina to South Florida, and has nine players signed to college scholarships.

One is his daughter, Dawon, who has signed with NCAA Divison II Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C. He said she first met Bears coach Shena Hollar at a camp at Tennessee, then got to show Hollar her skills in two exposure tournaments in South Carolina, as well as the Amateur Softball Association’s South Atlantic Region tournament in Burlington, N.C.

The unsigned Rampage players are upcoming seniors: East Ridge’s Kelli Crawford, GPS’s Lea Capehart and Hixson’s Brittany Roberts.

“It’s great having a local exposure tournament to be able to showcase your kids in front of local college coaches,” Millwood said. “A lot of my kids are looking at some of the smaller schools and would like to play somewhere locally. Hopefully a tournament like this will be a real benefit for them.”

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