The Fairfax County School Board voted last week to rename a Westfield High School athletic facility as the “Rob Hahne Memorial Baseball Field.”
Hahne, who died May 14 at age 57, was a leader in youth sports and served as Westfield’s head baseball coach for a decade.
“Naming the field in his honor is the perfect tribute to a man who gave everything to our community,” Westfield principal Meredith Norris said in a letter supporting the proposal.
“It will serve as a permanent reminder to future generations of the community, integrity and excellence that Coach Hahne stood for every single day,” Norris said.
Hahne “was a great example to every baseball player he worked with,” said Isaac Bumgardner, Westfield’s director of student activities. “Rob taught his players how to be good athletes and good people. He showed them how to work hard, play fair and respect others.”
Action on the renaming was taken at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, July 17 as part of the consent agenda during a lengthy school board meeting. Given the time, no school board members spoke on the topic.
In addition to Westfield, Hahne was head baseball coach at a number of local schools. He also was executive director of the Northern Virginia Baseball Travel League, which has grown to more than 400 teams and is one of the largest leagues of its kind in the nation.
He also helped create the Potomac League, which grew out of efforts to offer summer playing opportunities for college youth during the pandemic.
He also chaired the Fairfax County Baseball Council and was a member of the boards of the Fairfax County Athletic Council, Fairfax County Sports Tourism Taskforce and Visit Fairfax.
Hahne also was a longtime member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and its Virginia affiliate.
As a youth, Hahne was a standout pitcher and hitter for Langley High School’s baseball team, which he later went on to coach. He also played baseball while at Elon University.
When his son Kyle was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, Hahne founded Kyle’s Kamp, which has raised more than $2.4 million for philanthropic efforts, largely benefiting Children’s National Medical Center and Inova Children’s Hospital.
