In the fall of 2013 I had everything in place to add the two tension fabric indoor courts at Cape Henry Racquet Club. The site plan was complete and the vendor ClearSpan had been selected with an agreed upon price. At this point I was in “choke” mode…. Just did not have the guts to pull the trigger which meant I had to wire ClearSpan $70,000 to start the project. 

One early morning while at home my wife, Beth Gregory, came down stairs and said to me, “Build it and they will come”. I asked her if she knew where that expression came from. She said “no”. I informed her the expression came from the movie “Field of Dreams”. I went to YouTube and showed Beth the scene when Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones) is on the field telling Ray (Kevin Costner) not to sell the farm and to build it and they will come. Beth had a tear in her eye and I was concerned she was disappointed marrying me instead of Kevin Cosnter. The next night we watched the movie and she fell asleep before it started. 

A couple of days later I went to Townebank and met with Clare Lipovsik to wire the $70,000 to ClearSpan. I was wearing a Virginia Wesleyan sweatshirt due to being the coach at the time. Clare told me about her neighbor Professor Fanney at Virginia Wesleyan and what a great guy he was. He would have the students over his house for study sessions and would feed them. As it turned out, Professor Fanney was the son of Cape Henry Racquet Club’s Founding Member Bill Fanney. This connectivity eased my mind about the money transfer and led me to believe there was some magic going on here.  

About 4 weeks later I received an email from our ClearSpan Project Manager, Eric Stanton, communicating the building will arrive in January of 2014 along with the timeline of the project. At this point, I had only dealt with people in the ClearSpan Connecticut office. I went back to look at Eric’s email and the address in his signature was Iowa. I was like “Wow”…. Field of Dreams was in Iowa…. After a little more research I realized the indoor building at The Cape was being manufactured and shipped from 1440 Field of Dreams Way, Dyersville, IA 52040. I just stared at the computer and said “Holy Cow”. 

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME

Darryl Cummings