By the time Vero Beach High students return from summer vacation, contractors will be putting the finishing touches on the first phase of the Jimmy Graves Sports & Community Complex.

For the first time, track and field meets will be held across the street from the high school, thanks to the new eight-lane Florida High School Athletic Association regulation size track and field event stations. Inside the track is a new regulation soccer field that does double duty as a lacrosse field.

Students are excited because “they’re able to hold home track meets there now, instead of traveling all over the state,” said Bruce Green, the school district’s chief financial officer. “It’s kind of a big deal for this school and the community.”

“It’s a proud moment for us all,” said Nick Westenberger, director of facilities and support services for the county school district.

This major new athletic facility is an impressive example of how the public and private sectors can partner to accomplish a project neither was able to successfully undertake alone.

Also a first, at least in Indian River County, it will include a 5,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art inclusive playground with ramps, sensory elements and adaptive swings designed to welcome all children, regardless of their abilities, built to Americans with Disabilities Act specifications.

The fields and track will be lit up with the latest LED sports lighting, and a new LED scoreboard will keep athletes and audiences informed. This summer workers with Remnant Construction of Fort Pierce will finish erecting the combination concession stand, locker room, and bathrooms building, bleachers and a press box.

Local attorney Joe Graves bought the 11-acre parcel across the street from the high school in 2017 with a plan to build a youth sports complex in memory of his son Jimmy, who died in a boating accident the year before. After struggling unsuccessfully to raise the needed funding, Graves donated the parcel to the school board with the stipulation that the sports facility planned for the property bear his son’s name.

From design to construction, the total cost of this phase of the complex rings up at $7,648,010. About $4 million was raised through public and private donations, including $1 million from the City of Vero Beach, $1 million from the now-defunct Education Foundation of Indian River County, and another $2 million from other private and corporate donors.

The rest, approximately $3.4 million, is money from the state’s 2024 Special Appropriations funding, said Green.

Potential future additions to the complex include a Student Entrepreneurial Center, a student-run coffee shop, a student art gallery, office space for community partnerships, an amphitheater and concert and event venue, and a walking trail around the site.

The funding for the project is being managed by the Indian River Education Fund, a nonprofit that works with the school district to raise money for its strategic priorities.

The Indian River Education Fund “represents a new, complementary model for community investment in our public schools,” said IREF Executive Director Janet Knupp. “Built in partnership with business and civic leaders, the IREF is designed to bring fresh energy, innovation and private-sector engagement to meet the evolving needs of our students and educators.”

“It’s nice to see this project finally coming together,” said Westenberger. “This track and field represents more than just a place to run and play, it’s a symbol of progress and a shared vision.”

Photos by Joshua Kodis

KALAMAZOO, MI — The location of Discover Kalamazoo’s planned $40 million indoor youth sports facility has been officially proposed.

The proposed site is in Kalamazoo’s Westwood neighborhood, north of the Holiday Inn, between Drake Road and U.S. 131, Discover Kalamazoo CEO Jane Ghosh told the Kalamazoo City Commission earlier this week.

The facility, Ghosh said, will include one 200-by-85-foot indoor turf field and eight basketball courts. The courts will have the ability to be transformed to 16 volleyball courts, creating a space for local use and tournament play.

The current owner of the 20-acre property is Westgate 131, LLC.

Joseph Gesmundo, principal and cofounder of local development firm AVB, is the registered agent affiliated with the LLC.

Details of the land agreement are still being finalized, said Brian Persky, Discover Kalamazoo director of business development.

The site, near Kalamazoo Central High School and the Oshtemo Township border, is located on two public transit lines — one along West Main Street and the other along Drake Road.

It’s one of 30-plus sites considered by Discover Kalamazoo. Of the three final sites considered, it was selected by a 12 to 1 vote by the Youth Sports Facility Ad Hoc Committee on May 29.

The committee was appointed on May 20 by the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners and tasked with picking the location.

After presenting the location to the city on Monday, the committee will do the same for the county board on June 17. If approved by the county, the committee will then ask the city and county to form an authority under the Municipal Partnership Act, Ghosh said.

RELATED: Filling a void: Why a $40M youth sports complex is planned for Kalamazoo County

Plans are for the facility to serve area youth during the week and host regional tournaments on weekends.

Revenue generated from tournaments is anticipated to double the economic impact of sports tourism in the county, Ghosh said.

A commissioned study by Convention, Sports & Leisure estimates the facility will have an annual economic impact of $48.7 million.

In 2024 alone, more than 50 sporting events brought an estimated $30.3 million in direct visitor spending to Kalamazoo, Persky said previously. The facility is anticipated to bring in 36,000 additional hotel nights per year, he said.

The project is being paid for by a 4% hotel assessment voted on by hotel owners in the county. The assessment will be applied to all visitors to hotels with 35 rooms or more in Kalamazoo County on stays of less than 30 days. The assessment began being enforced at hotels in the county on June 1.

RELATED: Kalamazoo hotels approve funding assessment for $40M sports facility

Those funds will go toward the acquisition, construction and maintenance of the facility. The assessment revenue may only be used to fund the development of the new facility and other similar tourism-driving facilities.

There are no new taxes or fees on county residents to build the facility, Ghosh said.

If everything goes to plan, site prep is anticipated to begin by year’s end with an official groundbreaking in spring 2026, she said.

“We have been ambitious and optimistic throughout this entire project and so far we are on time,” she said.

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PlayLA Launches Summer Season of Youth Sports, Inspiring Olympic Spirit Across Los Angeles

This summer, PlayLA Youth & Adaptive Youth Sports Program, the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks signature youth sports program, is engaging families with a new season of inclusive, low-cost sports activities designed to uplift the next generation of athletes. Backed by a historic $160 million investment from the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), PlayLA is a movement celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic spirit in every neighborhood.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250605099404/en/

Flag Football in action at Lanark Recreation Center as part of PlayLA programming. Learn more at www.laparks.org/play-la

Now through summer’s end, families can explore dozens of PlayLA activities at more than 120 recreation centers and pools across Los Angeles. Youth ages 3 – 17 can play Olympic and Paralympic sports like swimming, skateboarding, flag football and more for as low as $10 per season. Scholarships are available for eligible families. Registration is open for programming across the city. Learn more at LAParks.org.

“PlayLA is a community-powered pipeline to LA28,” said Veronica Polanco, Chief Innovation Officer at the Department of Recreation and Parks. “When our young people have access to sports and adaptive recreation close to home, we’re not only promoting healthier lives, we are planting seeds for a lifelong connection to the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship.”

This momentum will build toward PlayLA Day on July 14, a citywide celebration, hosted by The Friends of the Coliseum, marking exactly three years until the LA28 Opening Ceremonies. Families are invited to enjoy free sports clinics, meet local athletes and take part in community fun that showcases the power of youth sports in shaping a brighter, more equitable future. PlayLA is not just preparing kids for the Games, it’s helping them build important skills such as leadership, teamwork and discipline to succeed across various areas of their lives.

As the countdown to the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games continues, PlayLA stands as a living legacy providing real-time impact while creating a more inclusive and active Los Angeles. The program offers young Angelenos of all backgrounds and abilities the opportunity to gain confidence, build community and discover their passions through play.

About PlayLA Youth and Adaptive Youth Sports Program:

The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks PlayLA Youth & Adaptive Youth Sports Program is a city-wide initiative that provides access to quality sports programming for youth of all abilities between the ages of 3 – 17. Made possible by an investment from the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), PlayLA is the single largest commitment to youth sports development in California and serves as a legacy before, during and after the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Learn more at LAParks.org and stay connected for updates and announcements on Instagram at @laparks.playla and @lacityparks.

Press Contact:

Melissa Gonzalo, 323-868-2687, mgonzalo@sensisagency.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250605099404/en/

As a teenager growing up in New Jersey, Patty Raube Keller always had a part-time job, but instead of spending her hard-earned cash on clothing or CDs, she bought softball cleats, goalie gloves, and downhill skis. While her parents were at work, she got herself to swim competitions, soccer and softball games, becoming an accomplished athlete in multiple sports. Looking back, the ski slopes and the pitcher’s mound were where she felt most at home. 

“I had a very emotionally abusive family so sports is where I was raised,” she recalled. “I had friends, my coaches believed in me. I’m also six feet tall and built like my father, who was a football linebacker, and sports was my way to be a big girl and be okay with that.” 

Raube Keller’s love for sports, and her belief in their importance in the lives of young people, has shaped much of her personal and professional life. Today, as director of Boston College’s M.S. in Sports Administration program, offered through the Woods College of Advancing Studies, Raube Keller is educating leaders to create more ethical and effective athletics programs at every level, from high school to the pros. The program is currently ranked #21 in the world, and #14 among postgraduate sports management programs nationwide.  

“Sports for kids are game-changers. For a lot of them, it’s how they get out of poverty,” explained Raube Keller. “For me personally, if it wasn’t for sports, I wouldn’t have gone to college. Who knows where I would be now?”  

Learning the ropes

There was no such thing as a sports management degree when Raube Keller attended college in the 1990s, so she majored in athletic training while playing Division III lacrosse and soccer at Greensboro College in North Carolina (a broken hand her senior year had dashed her Division I softball dreams). After graduating, she entered the male-dominated world of college athletics, often working long hours for little pay and no benefits. Some of her bosses, she said, were volatile and unethical—but she forged ahead, building a professional network and occasionally waitressing to pay the bills.    

In the early 2000s, while working as an assistant athletics director at Rowan University in New Jersey, Raube Keller entered a doctoral program and wrote her dissertation on a subject close to her heart: the marginalization of women working in college athletics. She had just met her husband, a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Pennsylvania, and been told by her boss that she could only get married during the offseason. In search of a more supportive work environment, she accepted a one-year contract at the University of Mary, a Benedictine school in North Dakota with a Division II athletics program. Her husband stayed behind in Pennsylvania.

“The oil boom was going and rents were $3,000 a month for a two-bedroom, so I moved into subsidized housing that the University helped me secure,” Raube Keller recalled. “It was crazy but I loved working there.”

As the school’s assistant athletic director for compliance, Raube Keller helped out wherever she was needed, traveling with younger coaches on road trips and providing support to student-athletes who were struggling. She brought in food for younger staff members and took in a graduate assistant who had become homeless. When her husband suffered a heart attack at 42, Raube Keller’s job was made permanent, allowing her and her husband to begin putting down roots in a townhouse in Bismarck. They knew biological children were impossible, so at the suggestion of a colleague, they applied to become foster parents instead.  

A new journey

Four-year-old Dana arrived at the Kellers’ house two days before Christmas in 2013, wearing a two-day old pull-up, a SpongeBob t-shirt, and one sock. Her backstory was heartbreaking: born on a nearby Indian reservation, her parents had abandoned her at a gas station along with her half brother. She had endured five foster care placements already, wasn’t potty trained, and was nonverbal.

“Her teeth were rotten,” Raube Keller recalled. “Cheetos probably were her main source of sustenance. I remember giving her watermelon and she wasn’t quite sure what it was.” 

CHESHIRE, Mass. — Hoosac Valley High School has named Kimberly Mach and Maryn Cappiello as the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, of the class of 2025. 

Both will speak at graduation on Friday, June 4, at 6 p.m. in the school gym. 

Mach, daughter of Lawrence and Loretta Mach of Adams, has been a Student Council member and treasurer all four years, as well as a member and treasurer of the school chapter of the National Honor Society. She was also a peer mentor, member of the Art Club, Girls Who Code and Student-Adult Advisory Board, and participated in the General Dynamics High School Engineering Competition.

She is an Advanced Placement scholar with honors and recipient of the Superintendent’s Award, Rensselaer (N.Y.) Polytechnic Institute Medal, Presidential awards for numerous honors and AP courses, and the National and the College Board’s National Rural and Small Town Recognition Program. She was a member of the Nordic and downhill ski clubs,

and played soccer for Hoosac and the Berkshire Ajax Club and was volunteer travel soccer coach for middle school girls.

Mach will be attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. 

Cappiello, daughter of Timothy and Brittney Cappiello of Adams, was a member of Student Council all four years, the National Honor Society, Student-Adult Advisory Board and Athletic Council and was class secretary and a peer mentor. She also completed the 1Berkshire Youth Leadership Program.

She is the recipient of the Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award and the Scholar-Athlete Award. She was a member of the soccer, lacrosse and basketball teams, including Hoosac’s state champion basketball teams in 2024 and 2025, and volunteered with youth sports and domestic violence victims. 

Cappiello plans to attend Assumption University to major in nursing. 

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