Before she passed away, longtime Goshen softball head coach Dee Hughes had one wish — for her team to have an on-campus playing field.

Thursday night, after years of fundraising and construction, Hughes’ dream will come true when Goshen softball celebrates its home opener on a brand new playing field against Pike County.

“It’s something we’ve dreamed of for a long time,” Goshen head softball coach Amy Warrick said. “When coach Hughes got this program, she always dreamed of having a field on campus, and we finally got the ball rolling about two years ago.”

Thanks in part to fundraising that was headed up by Sherriff Russell Thomas, Goshen was able to raise enough money to construct a new field and even receive some donations from Troy University’s softball program.

“Russell Thomas went around and he asked Troy University for all of their old field equipment and they were wonderfully generous by donating fencing and a backstop and field equipment,” Warrick said. “The Pike County School Board said if we reached a certain amount of money, they’d donate. It was a combination of Russell Thomas, the town of Goshen and the Pike County School Board.”

The Lady Eagles and Lady Bulldogs will take the field at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow after a few words from Thomas and members of the school board.

Goshen plans to honor Hughes later in the year by dedicating a plaque to the former coach and hanging it in the home dugout.

Details on that ceremony are still to be announced.

“The field isn’t named after her (Hughes), but we want to do a dedication to her,” Warrick said. “We want the whole Hughes family there. That’s what the girls want to do.”