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Derek Phillips, With Extensive Experience in Youth Recreation, Named General Manager of Hot Springs Youth Baseball Facility | Hot Springs National Park Arkansas

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Derek Phillips, With Extensive Experience in Youth Recreation, Named General Manager of Hot Springs Youth Baseball Facility

Derek Phillips of Bryant, a former athletic director of the Hot Springs Boys and Girls Club and currently director of operations for the Bryant Boys and Girls Club, has been named the first general manager of Hot Springs’ Majestic Park youth baseball facility.

He begins work on April 1, according to Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, which is building the Majestic Park complex on the site of the old Boys and Girls Club property on West Belding Avenue.

The five-field Majestic Park facility is expected to be completed by Spring 2021. It is financed by a $7.87 million bond issue approved by Hot Springs voters in September 2019. It will have artificial turf playing fields that will allow traveling tournaments to be held even after inclement weather would have closed baseball diamonds without that amenity.

“Derek Phillips has extensive experience in both youth recreation programs and in parks and recreation projects,” Arrison said. “He was athletic director of the Hot Springs Boys and Girls Club — on the property where Majestic Park is being constructed — and is now the director of operations for the Bryant Boys and Girls Club.

“He also has experience as the former parks director for the Bryant Parks and Recreation Department and was community and special events director for the City of Arkadelphia. We are pleased to have someone with this relevant experience as the first general manager of what we know will be the finest youth baseball facility in the South when we open next year.”

Phillips has organized and managed baseball tournaments across Arkansas and also has organized and help manage basketball and softball tournaments in the state.

“The Majestic Park facility, with its deep historical roots in Hot Springs’ role as The Birthplace of Major League Baseball Springs Training, will become both a tremendous asset for the kids of Hot Springs and also a major tourism asset as it becomes the scene of tournaments that bring in kids and their relatives from Arkansas and across the South,” Arrison said. “Derek Phillips will help us elevate the new facility to the top rank of such baseball complexes.

“Babe Ruth played at this site, as did other baseball legends who had come to Hot Springs to get in shape for the coming seasons. Who knows, maybe a future Babe Ruth will say he got his start in baseball at Majestic Park in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.”

For information call Steve Arrison, 501-321-2027.

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