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Football Team Looks For Field: Seaside: Pop Warner Schedule Conflicts With High School

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Sukhjit Purewal, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Apr. 5--Friday nights in autumn mean football at Seaside High, a school that raised banners the past two years as champions of the Monterey Bay League.

Years before they became Spartans, some of these student athletes played Pop Warner football Sundays on the same field, as members of the Seaside Raiders of the Monterey Bay Youth Football League.

The trouble is, say Seaside High officials, too much football isn't good for the field. Cleats dig up the turf and put players in harm's way, said Vice Principal Jeff Uchida.

In a district with no money for maintenance, upkeep has been a serious concern, said Athletic Director Geoff Coleman.

Several years back, the school adopted a policy not to allow other activities, including Pop Warner games, on the field the same week the Spartans have home football games, Coleman said. The field, he said, "needs time to recover."

Coleman said that volunteers with the Raiders were told in January that as soon as the football schedule for the Spartans was finalized it would become clear what four Sundays were open for the Pop Warner games.

But Pop Warner set its schedule first anyway, and after the school's schedule was set, it turned out three of the Raiders' four home games fell on weekends on which the high school had scheduled home games. There are still four Sundays open, Coleman said, if the Raiders are interested.

Counting the Spartans' three teams -- freshmen who play on Thursdays and the junior varsity and varsity teams that play on Fridays -- and two Pop Warner Raiders teams that play on Sundays, five games a week were played on the field in years past. The Raiders play eight games a season, four at home and four away.

Daniel Washington, a coach with the two Raider teams, said scheduling for the Pop Warner games are out of the coaches' hands. If he could, Washington said he would change the schedule so that it could fit with the field openings at the high school.

But beyond that, Washington said he can't understand why the school officials are insisting on enforcing a policy that he said punishes the city's youngsters. Last season was tough enough after a number of coaches and players broke away to start their own team in Monterey. It forced Washington and the other volunteers to work even harder to make the season come together.

Similar scheduling issues at Seaside High School forced the Raiders last season to play what should have been two home games at Alisal High School in Salinas and Stevenson High School in Pebble Beach.

Confessing not to be a gardener, Washington said he can't understand how going a week without a game played on it is going to help the field recover.

"Carmel (High School) manages, everybody else manages," Washington said. "Why do we have all these obstacles in our community?"

Monterey High School allows the Pop Warner team there to practice on the field, and Carmel High School also allows that city's youth league to use the field to play its games.

The Salinas high schools also allow the Pop Warner teams to use the fields. But the Salinas high schools switched to synthetic turf, which is more durable.

Coleman said he doesn't believe Seaside High will get Astroturf in his lifetime because the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is such a poor school district. The $4,000 the Raiders have paid in the past to use the field has gone to the district's general fund, which hasn't benefited the school, he said.

Washington said he still does not know where Raiders games will be played if Seaside High officials don't relax their policy. He said the Raiders may play where they practice, King Middle School, but the school has no yard markers, no goal posts and no bleachers.

Sukhjit Purewal can be reached at 646-4494 or spurewal@montereyherald.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)

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