Sports story: San Martin field of dreams teaches kids life lessons

Score Real Estate donates $5,000 to purchase artificial turf

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By Marty Cheek

Nestled against the backdrop of the Diablo Range in San Martin lies a baseball field that’s more than just a place to play ball. It’s a true field of dreams, a sanctuary of hope, and a crucible where young lives are transformed through the power of mentorship and the love of the game.

Matt Cooper, the owner of this small ranch turned baseball haven, stood on the mound, his eyes scanning the ballfield. Regulation-sized and meticulously maintained, it’s a far cry from the makeshift backstop his father and grandfather built back in 1980.

“This is where we learned to play the game,” Cooper reminisces, his voice tinged with nostalgia. “All the neighborhood kids came and played.”

He grew up here on the ranch and made it his home for 44 years, raising his family here. His passion for baseball runs in his blood. His father taught him the love of this American sport by bringing Cooper as a young boy out to the field and having him hit black walnuts with a stick.

“My dad and I would come out here and he’d throw black walnuts and I’d hit them until we couldn’t hit no more,” he said. “I was working on my hand-eye coordination. You hit a black walnut, you can hit a baseball.”

But the field lay dormant for years after Cooper’s grandfather passed away. It wasn’t until Cooper had two daughters of his own that the old magic began to stir in his blood once again, and the next generation of cousins was initiated into learning the game.

“Now we all have several kids, and so we really got into it,” Cooper explained, a smile spreading across his face.

The rebirth of the field coincided with the rise of Evan Nakagawa, who made it to the pros and drives to South Valley from his home in Santa Clara to train on the private field and inside the batting cage. The young ballplayer’s success sparked an idea in Cooper’s mind, one that would change the lives of countless children in the community.

“There’s a lot of guys his age and his caliber who train here,” Cooper said. “And in return, they have to work with the kids who come here. It’s a community we offer to kids who don’t have a lot of money. Some kids need guidance. They have generally a rough upbringing, and so we bring them out here and show them the game.”

The field has become a beacon for children from all walks of life. Armando Garcia, a Morgan Hill businessman, coaches the Spirit team of girl softball athletes here.

“They play until dark,” Armando said and chuckled. “We couldn’t get rid of them. We tell the parents, ‘Hey, practice is over.’ They love it here.”

Another Morgan Hill businessman, Aaron Parker, the owner of Score Real Estate, recently heard his friend Cooper wanted to upgrade the field with professional-grade artificial turn to give players a better training experience.

Parker remembers his own days in the sun playing baseball as a kid in the Central Valley near Stockton. He went the pro route,  drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2002. After shoulder and elbow surgery, he bounced around from team to team. He eventually started a wood bat league for adults.

Parker brought his boys to the field this summer and saw the progress of its development. Cooper told him he found out the University of California, Los Angeles, was tearing out fake sod in one of their fields and was selling it. Parker donated $5,000 to make the purchase. He presented the check in an afternoon in August on the field’s mound. He realized how much Cooper’s baseball training project and providing “father figures” through sports was helping so many at-need youths.

“It’s really something to help little kids,” Parker said. “Nothing is more important than seeing them grow. With team sports, it’s just a good way to make sure the kids get their head on straight. There’s so many different learning experiences. We’re giving back just as much as we can.”

What sets this field apart isn’t just the quality of the facilities or the professional-grade coaching. It’s the sense of belonging, the spirit of mentorship that permeates the venue.

Cooper’s own journey was shaped by a mentor, Mark Brand, a former catcher for the Yankees. “I wanted to pay him back,” he  recalled, “And he said, ‘Absolutely not. Someday, you’re going to be my age and there are going to be kids around. Pay it forward.’ This is the environment we created for them.”

The rules are simple: no iPads, no cell phones. Just learn. Learn the game, learn discipline, learn respect.

Cooper pointed out there are base paths for every level of play. “This was very sentimental to my family,” he said. “All my cousins and I, we grew up learning to play ball here.”

The impact of the field extends far beyond baseball skills. “A lot of what we teach and preach, it isn’t just about baseball. It’s life lessons,” he explains. “It breeds confidence. And everyone knows what confidence does to an individual, especially when you get in the real world.”

The field has seen its share of miracles. There’s the story of the next-door neighbor kid who kept peeking his head over the fence, too shy to ask if he could play. Working on the field with his daughter, Cooper noticed the boy and said, “Hey, bud you want to learn the game?”

The boy had an old glove and wasn’t very good. But after a year of coaching, the youngster made the All Stars Team. Then there’s Sophia McGhie, the Spirit of Morgan Hill softball player who trained here with a passion. She went on to be named to the National All Stars Game in Reno what year?

Even during COVID-19, the field remained a sanctuary. When they had no other field to use during the pandemic, young men with a fire in their hearts for the game came from Salinas and Woodside to train here. Players from Delta Community College even slept in tents on the property, getting up in the morning to train on the field, barbecuing their dinners under the stars.

With the sun hanging high overhead, Cooper gazed over his field, thinking about how this tiny patch of South Valley land has grown ever since his granddad and dad built the backstop.

“My family has wed, died, bled and cried here,” he said softly.

A hawk soared in the afternoon breeze over the foothills, serving as a silent sentinel to the dreams taking flight on the field below.

“It’s fun for the youngsters.” Cooper’s voice was filled with pride and hope. “I can’t wait to see some of these kids grow in the game.”

And grow they will, not just as ballplayers, but as individuals. For on this field in San Martin, dreams are nurtured, character is forged, and second chances are given. It’s more than a baseball field. It’s a field of dreams, where the spirit of the South Valley community and the power of mentorship come together to shape the future, one swing at a time.