Teams unexpectedly charged for baseball field renovations
Sam ReamerStaff WriterSamo’s marching band and soccer, baseball and football teams were asked unexpectedly to contribute $2,000 each towards the cost of re-sodding the baseball field.According to Director of Theater Operations and Facility Permits Carey Upton, if the teams contributed $2,000 each they would be paying five percent of the total cost of the re-installed outfield grass. Even though the baseball team primarily uses the field, the programs that used it during the reconstruction of the football field were asked to pay the same $2,000, because the money baseball raises through fundraisers frequently is spent on upkeep of their field.“We’re asking the people who used the field to pitch in for the repairs,” Upton said. “It’s not fair for baseball, which already raised a lot of money for the field, to be stuck with a majority of the cost. A lot of other programs use the field.”However, girls’ soccer coach Jimmy Chapman feels it is unfair to charge teams who rarely use the field the same amount as those that do.“I think it is still up for discussion,” Chapman said. “I don’t believe the amount has been finalized because there are questions about the fairness of the funds due to the time certain programs use the field.”Chapman also said that the proposal does not factor in future use or the access teams will be given to the new field.According to Chapman, athletes will suffer if the team is forced to pay the $2,000.“The money would come directly from our programs which is essentially from our players,” Chapman said. “Players would have to pay for a field that they haven’t used for three years.”According to baseball Coach Sheldon Philip-Guide, the baseball program is used to contributing to field costs. He also felt that the state of the field can affect Samo’s reputation.“Unfortunately, field condition plays a very big role in the safety and play of the game. So the baseball program has to repair the field annually,” Phillip-Guide said. “Not to mention, in a certain way, it’s how other schools get to see our campus. If they come to play our school, and see a nice field, they think the campus as a whole is nice. And the opposite is true as well.”Phillip-Guide believes that programs that use the field should contribute to the cost of maintaining it.According to Upton, the district would cover all the field maintenance if they had the funding.“Some people feel this is a district responsibility. However, the citizens of California have not given us the money to fully pay for it,” Upton said. “As a result of cuts we went from six gardeners to two.”According to Upton, the cost of installing new outfield grass increased because they had to use sod instead of planting grass seeds. Upton said that they would have used seeds if scheduling allowed them to, but unfortunately they also had to deal with the football field being closed.“It would have been cheaper if we could have used grass instead of sod, but unfortunately grass would have taken too long to grow,” Upton said. “If we had used grass the field would not have been ready for baseball season.”Athletic Director Daniel Escalera said that the administration does not plan to make a pattern out of asking teams for money.“We are asking coaches to assist in the fundraising, but this is a very unique situation,” Escalera said. “We don’t want to do this every year and hopefully we won’t. The field will not get hammered next year like it did last year because the football field won’t be closed.”According to Escalera, the new baseball field is now better equipped and will not be used as frequently, therefore reducing the need for repairs.“When we constructed the football field everyone was dumped on to the baseball field, which put too much strain on it,” Escalera said. “On top of that we had issues with the irrigation system. We don’t want the repairs to be a usual thing. Also we added a track so trucks can go on that instead of the grass which will cause less damage.”Sophomore marching band member Ben Canales thinks it is unfair to ask the programs, which also do not receive a lot of fundraising from the district, to pay.“I don’t think marching band should have to pay for the new field because we didn’t do any damage to the old one. We used the field respectfully,” Canales said. “The main problem with the field came from the athletes using it. Their cleats can damage the grass. But the district should pay for it because the athletes aren’t doing anything wrong by practicing. It’s the districts responsibility to keep a healthy, safe field.”Junior football player Matthew Rusk-Kosa believes the football team is willing to help pay for the field because is a necessity for their program.“I think the school should cover it, but it’s okay if everyone agrees to do it and has the means to do it then they should help out with the field. We are striving to create a better program and a new field will help with that, but we don’t want it to be something extensive. It’s like our gift to the future classes.”Escalera understands the resentment programs feel about having to pay, but still feels it is a necessity.“$2,000 is a lot of money to ask for and teams would rather keep that money in their own program, but we also have to play and practice on that field,” Escalera said.