BUFFALO TWP - While moving dirt for construction of a football field in April of 2003, Albert "Ouch" Roenigk came across some turtle eggs.

Two years later, two turtles - and the Freeport Youth Football organization - have a place to call home.

The Hive at Lernerville, the new home of the four Freeport youth football teams, was officially dedicated last Saturday. The field sits on Lernerville Speedway property, just beyond the fenced-in pit area of the speedway and just below the Little League baseball field constructed on the track's property in 1986.

"I was moving dirt and I saw these eggs … I didn't know what they were," Roenigk said. "We kept digging and I found two more.

"The first ones were dried up by the sun and we noticed they were turtle eggs. I took the other two home, kept them in a box of dirt and on Sept. 19, they hatched.

"I've been the proud owners of two turtles ever since," Roenigk added.

Because of the efforts of Lernerville personnel and numerous businesses in the Freeport and Sarver area, the resurrected Freeport youth football program is the proud owner of a new field.

Freeport's previous youth grid program, known as the Bumblebees, disbanded more than a decade ago because of a lack of funds.

It was restarted in 2001.

"If our kids wanted to play youth football, they had to go to Highlands or Saxonburg," Freeport Youth Football president Marie Douglas said. "A few parents got together and decided to get our team back."

Through word of mouth and fund-raising efforts to buy equipment, the program returned with just over 100 kids after a 14-year hiatus. The program swelled to 160 kids and four teams four years later.

Freeport plays in the Greater 28 Youth League with Hampton, Deer Lakes, Ford City, Armstrong and Kiski Area. It played some games at Freeport Park, a few games at the high school stadium, but never had its own field.

Freeport's program has teams in the age 6-7, 8-9, 10-11 and 12-13 categories.

Matt Hughes, a longtime race fan whose son Curtis plays on the age 12-13 squad, decided to approach Roenigk and Lernerville about constructing a field."I thought they'd be receptive to the idea and they were," Hughes said. "I knew they had the land down there and could do something with it."As Roenigk began clearing land, curious passers-by stopped over and the field quickly became a community project.More than 15 area businesses contributed in one way or another. The estimated overall cost of the project was $175,000."Not one tax dollar was used," Douglas said. "Six years ago, we started this journey with a group of strangers who met through Highlands Hornets football."We decided Freeport needed midget football. Now it has a beautiful field we can call home, for our kids and parents to enjoy."It's a blessing … a true blessing," she added, choking back tears."A lot of people put in tremendous amounts of effort over the past two years to get this done," former Freeport youth football athletic director Dave Blythe said. "This was a true community effort."Former Freeport High School varsity football coach Gary Kepple - who was involved with Freeport football for 28 years - said a thriving youth program is critical to the high school program."There's a lot of choices for young people today and unfortunately, some of them aren't good," Kepple said. "There's nothing better than football. It's the ultimate team game."So many of life's lessons can be learned by being a part of it. This field is a precious gift to the young people of this community."Two major contributors to Freeport Youth Football - public address announcer James Quinn and Joe Jack, who contributed the grass seed for the field - recently died and were unable to see the completed project.Two helium-filled balloons were released into the air during the dedication ceremonies in their memory.The field project was originally given the go-ahead by former Lernerville Speedway owner Helen Martin. It continued with the sale of the facility to DIRT Motorsports, Inc."They wanted to do it," Martin said of DIRT Motorsports. "They want to be involved in the community.""What we thought would take two weeks took two years," Roenigk said. "I should have known it'd be a slow process when I found the turtles."There was a lot more involved to this project than I thought. But through everyone pitching in and all coming together, it was worth it."