Quaker Valley High School sophomore Damien McClay’s love of baseball shines brighter than the diamond he and his teammates play on.
The multi-position player enters his second season with the Quakers this month and feels positive about the team’s chances of success.
“It’s awesome,” said Damien, 15, of Sewickley. “The team spirit and everything is really fun to be around. Being there, you can feel the energy.”
That love may glow even brighter should a proposal for lights at the Esmark Baseball Field at the James P. Bouchard Family Park in Bell Acres move forward.
Currently, Quakers have to travel to other school districts to play night games.
Damien, who also plays ball for the Quaker Valley Recreation Association, recalled a game under the lights in Montour School District.
He hopes to have that same feeling at home games.
“The ballpark is awesome,” Damien said. “There’s only one downside — we can’t play late. We do have an early sunset. It gets dark quickly. The night games, it’s a different energy. It’s a really cool thing to feel. You don’t play outside at night a lot. It’s like walking into a baseball stadium, lights glaring. It’s really fun to walk into and to play under it would be awesome.”
That dream moved a little closer to fruition as Bell Acres council voted 5-0-1 on March 9 to approve a conditional use application by Quaker Valley Recreation Association for lights at the ball field.
Councilman Christopher Abell was absent. Council vice president Brock Meanor abstained because he is the team sponsor.
There was a public hearing prior to the vote.
Residents talked about cleaning up the area and addressing some old fencing among other measures to be done prior to lights going up.
“The QVRA was thoughtful in their lighting design by going with top of line equipment that has extra features to limit the potential for any glare impact to the adjacent residents of Bell Acres,” Councilman Greg Molchen said on March 18.
“They were very open to working with the planning commission and did not oppose the additional recommendations and requirements. The QVRA respectfully listened and addressed the concerns from the planning commission, council and community, that were raised not only about the lights, but also with the maintenance, current appearance and the other planned future projects at the park. There is work to be done, but I feel confident that the QVRA listened and will take the appropriate actions.”
Project details
QVRA leases the site from Quaker Valley School District.
The association wants to install six light poles with 10 Ephesus LumaSport 8 LED lights each.
Bell Acres ordinance requires recreational lighting to be turned off by 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The state-of-the-art lights have a wireless control system to ensure automatic curfew compliance as well as other control capabilities to ensure they do not impact nearby homes.
The association sought proposals from three companies before ultimately partnering with NGU Sports Lighting, the same company the school district uses for its football field lighting.
Mike Riordan, lead of capital campaign for the association, said the project costs about $400,000 and is part of an estimated $1.5 million fully-funded park upgrade.
Funding includes about $1 million in private donations that will cover a match requirement for a $500,000 state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant.
“It was part of our broader strategy and approach to develop more fields and opportunities for kids to play,” Riordan said. “This is our only full-scale high school-sized field in the area. What lights does is it effectively expands capacity of the field by more playing opportunities for the kids. We can get more kids, more games, more practices with having lights.
“It’s an exciting first step, but we have multiple phases that we want to try and execute this year.”
Bigger picture work includes increased parking, a walking trail, a playground, a new entrance off Camp Meeting Road and other improvements.
Riordan hopes to have the lights up in June and the rest completed by the end of the year in time to start another capital campaign for a new multi-sport turf field near the baseball field.
The association has about 800 players from multiple communities ages 4-18 years old. Community baseball is from mid-April into October.
The district’s season is from early March and ends in May. Playoffs may push games into June.
Quaker Valley’s baseball squad finished as the WPIAL Class 3A runner-up and a PIAA quarterfinalist in 2025.
The association also has lacrosse and soccer on other fields.
QVRA secretary Joel Swanson said community discussions about park upgrades began in the late 1990s. Business really picked up the past few years.
Swanson and his wife, Maria, have committed $100,000 toward the project.
“This is exciting,” Swanson said. “I was on the original ad hoc committee.”
He said the association has fewer fields than there were 30 years ago and more space is needed.
Swanson believes the upgrades will attract more people to the park.
“We’d like to have the whole community (here),” Swanson said. “Players, their little brothers, their little sisters, their grandparents. We’d like to have everybody up here. Playgrounds, walking paths, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, softball all in the same day so you don’t have to park at four different fields when your kids run from sport to sport.”
More information about the development plan including a list of donors and how to donate is available at qvrfdf.org.
More work to be done
School directors have yet to vote on the proposal. It is unclear when that may occur.
The school board met March 17 at a combined committee and legislative session. The proposal was not on the agenda.
The project will go out for bid shortly after district approval.
Riordan said they association has worked very closely with the district on the project and cited multiple conversations with board member Gianni Florro and Charlie Gauthier, the district’s director of facilities.
“They are a tremendous partner for us providing advice and logistical support,” Riordan said.
District spokesperson Michelle Dietz said there is no time frame for a board vote on the project.
“The district is grateful for the long-standing relationship with the Quaker Valley Recreation Association,” Dietz said on March 18. “The potential upgrades to the fields through lighting is an exciting prospect to be able to extend the hours in which QVRA and Quaker Valley students could use those facilities.”