If Chuck Joseph's sentences are sprinkled with baseball cliches, it's understandable. He and his circle of friends don't just coach aspiring athletes, they build them places to play.

"My motivation was that the girls didn't have a diamond, that's a baseball diamond, and I saw a need," Joseph said. "We were always using borrowed fields."Joseph's daughter Cailyn, now a student at Tamaqua High School, and Wayne Postupak's daughter Samantha, now a college freshman, played softball since they were youngsters. The two men are good friends Joseph is married to Postupak's sister. Although both their daughters have moved on to the higher grades, both wanted to improve the opportunities for the girls to follow.On Thursday afternoon Joseph was putting the finishing touches on the stunning result a beautiful softball field built on ground owned by the Tamaqua Area School District at the Rush Elementary School.The field is a testament to the hard work of the Tamaqua Area Girls Youth Softball Association, which raised about $75,000 in the past two years to build the field.The new field takes the place of a former field that was little more than an old backstop and weeds two years ago.Joseph met with school district administrators, who gave them permission.Postupak, who owns and runs Northeast Hydroseeding on Route 309, did the needed excavating, fertilizing and planting work. He also improved the drainage on the third base side of the field.Meanwhile, Joseph was wading through a 36-page grant application through Major League Baseball called the Baseball Tomorrow Fund. They were awarded a $12,000 grant through the fund, which they used to build the new backstops.They raised the rest of the money through pizza, baked goods and T-shirt sales and by getting sponsors. The sponsors' signs presently hang along the third base fence, but they'll be moved to the outfield fence, which was completed just this week. Joseph was also able to secure a $2,500 First Federal Bank Charitable Foundation grant, which was used toward the cost of the outfield fence."We designed it to be 'fan friendly' which means that people can see the field from everywhere," Joseph said. "That's why the dugouts don't have walls and why we located the concession stand off to the side."Donnon's Dairy donated the concession stand, and Highwood USA donated two picnic benches. Sponsors include Two Kings Pizza, Pyramid Sports Performance, Shawn Gilbert Construction, Northeast Hydroseeding, Hometown Farmer's Market, Stephens Landscaping, Professional School Photography, Basile's Restaurant, Koch's Welding, CJs Lawn Care, Vonz Restaurant, West Penn Game & Fish, Seitz Brothers and Von Hoekelen Greenhouse. Six girls youth teams currently share the field.The officers of TAGYSA are President Michael Nicholls, Vice President Robert Seltzer, secretary and project coordinator Chuck Joseph, and treasurer Renee Baddick.