Achieving Greatness Through Sports Field Design

SightLine Design, LLC
SightLine Design, LLC
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For The Players, By Former Players

With a stable full of former college/pro/national team ballplayers, coaches, and MLB head groundskeepers, we can truly call upon the "foremost" experts on how a field should look and, more importantly, perform. 


We design for our kind; meaning those who will touch the new or renovated field always have the most important needs to meet. Sorry, fans in the bleachers.

Our Executive Team:

James Beever

W. Ross Clites

W. Ross Clites

CEO / VP of Business Development


james@4mostsport.com

(618) 900-1362


W. Ross Clites

W. Ross Clites

W. Ross Clites

President / Senior Design Consultant


ross@4mostsport.com

(517) 403-2097

Eric Blanton

W. Ross Clites

Gene Douglas, AIA

Project Manager / VP of Construction Services


eric@4mostsport.com

(775) 294-2187

Gene Douglas, AIA

Gene Douglas, AIA

Gene Douglas, AIA

Design Consultant


gene@4mostsport.com

(417) 300-3483


JoDee Patterson

Gene Douglas, AIA

JoDee Patterson

Finance & Administration Manager


jodee@4mostsport.com

(724) 992-9871


Sherpas Leading You Up The Mountain

Our groundskeepers know how to build fields because they've worked the problems from the other end. With each new project, they call upon personal past experience -- on what fails and why -- and use it to reverse engineer a road map to follow.


These guys are here to tell you that even the game's biggest stage has field construction issues. "If that's the case, how do the lower levels stand a chance of flawless execution?" Well, you can prevent things from going sideways by reaching out to 4Most. This unprecedented collection of advisors has seen (and likely fallen in) every imaginable pitfall. Now that they've learned, they'll gladly guide you around.

Our Advisory Board of Industry Experts:

Former (& Current) MLB Head Groundskeepers

Luke Yoder

Paul Zwaska

Paul Zwaska

Pittsburgh Pirates (2000-2003)

San Diego Padres (2003-2015)


luke@4mostsport.com

(619) 980-5762


Paul Zwaska

Paul Zwaska

Paul Zwaska

Baltimore Orioles (1985-2000)


paul@4mostsport.com

(608) 469-7079

Tom Burns

Greg Elliott

Greg Elliott

Texas Rangers (1996-2006)


tom@4mostsport.com

(214) 864-4164

Greg Elliott

Greg Elliott

Greg Elliott

San Francisco Giants (2008-Present)


greg@4mostsport.com



Former MiLB Head Groundskeepers

Patrick Coakley

Patrick Coakley

Patrick Coakley

Altoona Curve


patrick@4mostsport.com

(410) 241-3013

Eric Blanton

Patrick Coakley

Patrick Coakley

Reno Aces


eric@4mostsport.com

(775) 294-2187

Industry-Leading Field Builders

Mike Viersma

Mike Viersma

Mike Viersma

mike@4mostsport.com

(908) 295-6082

Cam Toone

Mike Viersma

Mike Viersma

cam@4mostsport.com

(435) 230-1203


Frank Masterson

Frank Masterson

Frank Masterson

frank@4mostsport.com

(785) 331-7504


Ryan Reid

Frank Masterson

Frank Masterson

ryan@4mostsport.com

(207) 294-2329


Message From Our President

Sports fields are being assembled and renovated by firms whose bailiwick are not in athletics. They'll win a bid for a new high school and flawlessly execute the layout of 50 classrooms, a new science lab, and even a Broadway-caliber black box theater. The varsity baseball and softball fields, however, will get orientated wrong, spec'd with underperforming native materials, and ultimately have no inputs from the true end users. Even the "good ones" I have experienced are woefully generic. Baseball and softball are the coolest sports on the world, from an architectural aspect. Only golf courses beat them in the freedom/flexibility/customization their geometries provide. 


The problem is that firms are not regularly drawing them up. A recent survey showed that less than 5% of revenue generated in architecture firms nationwide were from outdoor athletic facilities. Places commissioned to provide these rare projects typically crack the spine on the 1974 Architectural Graphic Standards. Fields look left over; the side car to the brand new high school that wins a local AIA medal. 


Timing is certainly everything when predicting successful outcomes in business. Some elements of this you can control: when you decide to enter a project or arranging site visits to align with other planned trips. Others you cannot; for instance, global circumstances when you leave college. Now, I set out to be a licensed architect at one of the worst possible times for that industry. For architecture firms, the "Great Recession" was an avalanche of lay-offs that few could predict or prevent. People simply stopped building. Thankfully, when the downsizing finally hit my workplace, I had a soft landing on a new career path -- coaching.  


Playing baseball at Kent provided me an opportunity to apply for college positions across the country. In July of 2010, I found such a job in St. Louis, Missouri. For six seasons, I was the pitching coach at D-III Washington University in St. Louis. The experience opened my eyes to a sad state of current affairs -- in terms of field quality. It was a really competitive level of baseball (at ultra-wealthy institutions), but the infrastructure wasn't close to meeting the demand. Improvements that school presidents, trustees, and athletic directors lobbied for -- as "must haves" -- were predominantly tangential to the necessities of playing more games, on a more consistent basis.


When I had a chance to do it my way, the niche that was every firm's once-in-a-career was going to be my sole focus. And I was going to go back to my roots; no chasing the few jobs that exist at the top of the baseball pyramid. I'd rather work with the underserved middle tier (small colleges, high-end high schools, and multi-field complexes) than build a full-blown stadium. Those pro gigs have become more about restroom quantities and placement than the essence of the game. That's just not for me. 


The day to do it all differently arrived in April of 2018. Founded as SightLine Design in St. Louis, I brought this unique, and highly-disruptive, architectural start-up "back home" to Pittsburgh. The full relaunch, as 4Most Sport Group, took place in late 2019.  


I thank you for visiting our site to learn more about the members of our team. Let us serve you to better serve the youth in your communities.


Sincerely,


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