New season, but no games at ‘retired’ youth baseball field in Loudoun County

For the first time in decades, the Opening Day crack of the bat and cheers of enthusiastic young ballplayers and their parents won’t be heard at Lions Field in Aldie, Virginia, one of the longtime home fields for Loudoun South Little League.

A last-minute compromise saved last spring’s season. But this year, Lions Field — consisting of two grass baseball diamonds — hidden behind trees on Route 50 — are now in the bittersweet limbo between seasons past and the future.

As WTOP reported in March 2023, discussions between new land owner Chuck Kuhn, of JK Moving, the president of Loudoun County Little League, and Dulles District Supervisor Matt Letourneau enabled LSLL and the Loudoun South Eagles travel baseball team to play their final spring seasons at Lions Field.

What Lions Field in Loudoun County looks like now

During an early morning visit, on a drizzly Tuesday, the “Green Monster” fence in left field remains, as does the scoreboard in right-center field. However, banners of previous years champions are gone.

Through its final season, teams lovingly cared for the grass field after each game or practice, with young players raking the infield and home plate dirt. Now, the infield dirt includes a wide variety of weeds.

 

The benches have been upended in team dugouts, and the aluminum bleachers have been removed.

Little League schedules have been shifted to new fields, including Hal and Berni Hanson Regional Park, which opened in 2022.

However, the future of the land Lions Field sits on is not as clear.

 

Land records show Kuhn’s company purchased the land on Dec. 28, 2022.

As of Tuesday’s visit, the property has not been cleared or altered dramatically, and no new businesses have started to move in.

Contacted by WTOP, an assistant to Kuhn says JK Land Holdings is awaiting site plan approval from the county for development on the former field of dreams.

Kuhn, one of the most successful developers in the nation, has also put much of the Loudoun County land he owns or acquires into conservation, and it totals more than 22,000 acres.

Earlier this decade, Kuhn and his family donated 128 acres to NOVA Parks. The former 134-acre Westpark Golf Course property in Leesburg is being redeveloped as a park. Kuhn turned 150 acres near Purcellville into the nonprofit JK Community Farm.

In 2022, a team of 12-year-old Little Leaguers headed from Lions Field to the regional championships in Georgia, but fell short of making it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

WTOP’s Jeff Clabaugh contributed to this report.

 

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Neal Augenstein

Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.

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