Wildcat Stadium has seen numerous changes this school year: the scoreboard, a new shed for the men’s soccer program and the turf. Due to concerns for the safety of athletes playing on the turf, parts of the field were patched in December.
Over the last two years specifically, separation at the seams of the turf started to appear between the green and white areas, like the end zone and the lettering. As the seams were separating, it became a potential tripping and slipping hazard, as cleats for football, soccer or lacrosse players would have nothing to hold on to.
“I don’t want to put our student athletes in situations where there’s the increased potential for getting injured. That’s already there in sports, so let’s try to decrease it as much as we can,” Athletic Director Erich Means said.
However, before the repairs in December, flag football players Alex Maday and Keira Ngo both tore their ACLs during home games. Maday missed out on the remainder of her senior season for flag football. She also was not able to participate in wrestling, despite being ranked the number one female wrestler in California.
“The spot where they had to fix was right where I tore my ACL,” Maday said. “Both [injuries] probably could’ve been avoided with better turf.”
Means said that it took about two years of sending information to the district office about the issues to begin the process. In November, discussions between the athletic department and district took place, then the district contacted a company to come to the stadium. The athletic department served as a facilitator of the repairs, giving access to the field and providing information. However the district office handled funding and made the choices of who would actually be doing the renovation. The company agreed to make repairs the first week of December but was then delayed due to material shipments not coming in time.
“There’s still a couple spots maybe where they should have repaired but they didn’t for whatever reason. I have no understanding of why they replaced it the way they did,” Means said.
Repairs finally took place during the first week of Sierra Foothill League play for the men’s and women’s soccer seasons. Six soccer teams use the stadium to practice and play games, so when the field was unavailable, the teams were moved to William Jessup University and Bayside Church in Granite Bay.
“I didn’t really mind [playing at Bayside.] I thought it was different and the field was probably better so it wasn’t that bad,” men’s varsity soccer player Brian Lynch said.
After the patchworking was finished, the areas that were fixed stood much taller than the older turf. The last time the turf was redone was nine years ago, so those areas lay flat compared to the newer turf.
“The ball definitely bumps over those new lines a lot more than it used to,” Lynch said. “When we played Monte Vista, their first goal came from our right side and it bounced over someone’s leg, so it was unlucky.”
The patches done in December are a temporary fix to address some of the safety concerns from the district office. There are future plans to receive a full turf replacement in the summer
of 2026. Facilities Coordinator Mr. Craig Rouse said the project is currently in the design developmental stage and will go out to bid once the drawings are approved by the Office of Public School Construction.
Means said, “We’ll have to start that process of looking at the kind of turf because there’s a lot of different kinds now and we’ll need to get the current logo. There’s all those pieces, so that’ll probably start in this coming fall, maybe early winter.”
by EMERSON KIBBY
