Put sports on better footing

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, February 19, 2005

More kids, more kickers.

Perhaps the best measure of island growth over the past 15 years has been the swelling ranks of youth soccer programs, and the attendant clamor for more facilities for year-round play. The recent development of soccer pitches and baseball diamonds at Sands Avenue and Hidden Cove has been mere triage in the face of growing need – just ask recent members of the park board, who have heard the call and done what they can with donated labor and limited public funds.

The need persists, but the political venue is changing. As reported elsewhere in this issue, school officials Thursday heard a formal pitch from youth sports groups (who thankfully didn’t show up en masse, since the meeting was held in the lilliputian Ordway library) for one or more synthetic fields on local school grounds. Backers cited the opportunity for year-round activity amongst the legions of competitive and recreational soccer players. A “turf” field, they said, would see four or five times the use of regular grass facilities, which must be closed much of each year to let the sod recuperate from a season of pounding by little cleated feet. By one estimate, even a single synthetic surface would be the equivalent of developing nine acres of conventional ball fields. Among the few drawbacks: their replacement cycle is eight to 10 years, at a cost of around $300,000.

We should say up front that we’re glad the discussion has moved away from putting an artificial turf field at Battle Point Park, which strikes us as a political non-starter. Optimum use of a turf field inevitably demands lights, a dubious prospect in any residential neighborhood outside the Winslow area. That said, putting one or more of the newfangled surfaces at the high school and/or Woodward has considerable merit.

So even as the school board works to keep its facilities construction bond at a reasonable amount, the community should acknowledge that physical education and extra-curricular athletics are integral to a high school education, and that the school grounds can and should be a year-round hub for kids and adults who want to stay active, healthy and fit. Once novel and exotic, synthetic turf fields are becoming the norm in school districts around Washington. Let’s join their ranks.

In fact, we’ll go further and suggest that a really forward-thinking plan for island ball field development might look something like this:

First, include the $1 million or so needed to replace the football/soccer field at Memorial Stadium with a top-of-the-line synthetic surface. Do so with a commitment by the school district that the youth soccer organization will have access to the field a certain percentage of the time – provided that group imposes a meaningful field-use fee on players that will go directly to maintenance and related costs.

At the same time, let the school and park districts and user groups set a shared goal of installing a second turf field – in another five years – either at Woodward/Sakai (which offers abundant parking) or Strawberry Hill (which already has lights). Consider the intervening time a trial for the high school field, while raising private funds for a second facility.

Building two turf fields, five years apart, would put them on a staggered schedule for replacement, and if they’re all they’re cracked up to be, would vault the community years ahead of our ever-growing ball field needs.

We’d be on good footing, finally.