VALDOSTA — Andy Gibbs’ journey to starting the Miracle League of Valdosta started with a 2004 Bryant Gumbel HBO special. 

A former football player, Gibbs had always wanted to help children with special needs but didn’t know exactly how. Then, an HBO special about the Miracle League, which started in Conyers in 1999, changed his life.

“I think God laid it on my heart,” Gibbs said he told his wife when she came home that night. “There’s a reason I’m sitting here watching TV, especially HBO.”

That year was the first time Gibbs had the vision of a Miracle League in Valdosta, complete with its own specialized field. Now, 14 years later, Gibbs’ vision is finally close to fruition.

The Miracle League of Valdosta, along with the Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority, is nearing completion on a field specifically designed for the children and adults with special needs that use it. The field will be at Freedom Park as part of a larger project that’s adding four other regular softball fields to the complex.

It will be completed in November, with the first games played on it slated for around the first of March.

The field will be equipped with a special rubberized surface that eliminates any barriers for players that use wheelchairs or walkers. The dugouts will also be fully handicap accessible and will feature bathrooms with a toilet and showers to clean up players in the event of an accident on the field.

Gibbs first had the vision for a Miracle League in 2004, even raising several thousand dollars for it, but it didn’t get started until 2014 with the help of George Page, executive director of the VLPRA, and Jeremy Davis, who has served as president of the Miracle League of Valdosta since its inception.

The league offers both adults and children with mental or physical disabilities the chance to play baseball in a league setting. Games last for around 45 minutes to an hour with every player batting and running the bases each inning. Players are assisted by volunteers, known as buddies, that help them run the bases and protect them from hard-hit balls.

Since the league began, the six-game seasons have been played on a regular softball field with a mat put down to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers and temporary fencing. But now with the new field nearing completion, the league will have its own permanent home.

“If we can do what we do with grass, imagine what we can do with a field that’s made for them,” Gibbs said.

It’s not just a baseball field that’s being added. There is also a playground that is completely barrier-free, as well as a pavilion area that is equipped with sinks and countertops for cooking.

On the field itself, the rubberized surface allows for lines for a soccer field and a basketball court to be painted on. If someone wants to play a different sport, all that has to be done is for the goals to be put in place. There are also eight 50-meter track lanes, which Gibbs said allows local Special Olympics athletes to have a place to train.

These additions are made possible by the dimensions of the field. Instead of the fence being 125 feet away from home plate, it’s 200 feet, allowing both a bigger field for more advanced players and the space for a soccer field and basketball court.

“We’ve got [three] sports compared to one,” Gibbs said.

The field was built with the Miracle League in mind, but it won’t just benefit that organization. With the closest field of its kind in the state located in Macon, Gibbs said any school or other organization in the area with people with disabilities is welcome to use the field free of charge as long as they schedule with the VLPRA.

Gibbs feels the need to allow the community to utilize the field because of how supportive they’ve been.

When the planning for the field started, the cost was pegged at around $1.5 million. Within months, nearly $700,000 had been raised. Shortly after, a pair of banks stepped in and donated $500,000 each to get the necessary funding. Gibbs said he’s heard from other Miracle League organizers who have said, “I wish I could have that here.”

Even people with special needs who don’t want to play sports have a place at the new field. The concession stand, which Gibbs said is equipped for commercial items such as hamburgers, hot dogs and a soda fountain, will offer people with disabilities a place to work and interact with people as part of getting them out more into the community.

That thought even plays into how the field is layed out. The field points toward the center of the Freedom Park complex, allowing the players with special needs to feel more a part of everything that’s going on.

Gibbs said he also hopes the field’s positioning will encourage local little leaguers, who will walk right by the Miracle League field while games are going on, to be buddies with Miracle League players in the future.

Speaking of the future, Gibbs hopes the field allows Miracle League to expand to having a basketball and soccer league in the future. Also part of potential future plans is a tournament where teams from surrounding South Georgia counties come to Valdosta and play each other.

But for now, the future consists just of wanting the field to get done. But after waiting for 14 years to get to this point, that’s nothing.

“What’s another six months?” Gibbs said.